TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo Helps Ukraine is partnering with ProMedica to deliver bags of syringes and other medical supplies to people living in the war-torn country ravaged by Russia's nearly yearlong invasion.
"Having ProMedica, a team of professionals, joining us absolutely takes the heavy lifting off our shoulders," Toledo Helps Ukraine founder Alona Matchenko said. "We are happy to be partnered with our allies who support our mission."
The nonprofit has been collecting the supplies as part of a larger shipment to help the people of Ukraine. February will mark one year since the war began.
"They are fighting this rigorous enemy who stepped into their house. Everything is important," Matchenko said.
She said the donations are a necessity to help those still in the country, especially since the nonprofit has been operating as a team of just three people since its formation.
Volunteers like Jim Trumm have traveled to Europe in the past to deliver supplies.
Trumm said delivering much-needed supplies is a way to give back to the culture that helped to build the city of Toledo.
"A lot of the people who built Toledo were from that part of the world. Poland, Hungary, Ukraine," Trumm said. "This feels to me like I have the opportunity to pay those people back for helping to build our city."
ProMedica is hosting another event to benefit Toledo Helps Ukraine on Feb. 9 at Handmade Toledo from 5:30-8 p.m. Organizers ask for items such as winter clothes, nonperishable foods, water and power sources including batteries, power blocks and generators.