CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Humanitarian relief supplies from Hampton Roads are heading to the Ukrainian border.
This is part of the efforts of the Virginia Beach-based Operation Blessing International Disaster Relief Team.
“Just imagine as a refugee, you decide to leave your country because you have nothing left," said Diego Traverso.
Traverso and three team members are ready to help thousands of Ukrainian refugees in Poland.
“I heard that over 50 to 100,000 refugees are crossing daily and no one is capable, not even the UN to take care of all of them. So that's why we are deploying. We need as much help as needed," said Traverso.
Team members are taking supplies like hundreds of water filtration systems and solar lamps from the Operation Blessing Chesapeake Warehouse.
“So this keeps the elderly safe too at night. This is the solar panel. This tells us the battery level and 50 Lumens of light," said Jorge Luis De La Rosa
De La Rosa is the logistics manager for this international disaster relief team.
“Personally, I love doing this. Operation Blessing is always the first one to say we are ready," said De La Rosa.
The team is set to arrive in Poland on Thursday and will help set up medical clinics.
Operation Blessing plans to send another team on Monday. The organization has helped people in Ukraine and neighboring countries since 2018.
The team that left Wednesday will stay in Poland for a month or longer.
Operation Blessing has international teams also helping in Ukraine. Please click here to learn more about their efforts.