GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) – A brand new shipment of bulletproof vests and ballistic helmets will be on their way from our area to Ukraine on Monday.
The supplies are being donated to humanitarian crews helping get people out of Ukraine overseas. Local grassroots organizations from the Upstate and humanitarian workers affiliated with nonprofits in the Western North Carolina area are coming together (along with many others) to make it happen.
All of this comes just a couple weeks after Direct Support Ukraine, a Greenville based group that has already raised more than $40,000 to send to Ukraine since the conflict started, put out a plea to the community a couple weeks ago–asking for connections to help facilitate a shipment of vests.
They tell FOX Carolina the whole idea for the mission came after their own humanitarian workers in places like Poland, who were driving humanitarian vans to evacuate people from Ukraine, were shot at by Russian troops. One of their colleagues died.
They say this batch of supplies could save lives of those who are helping vulnerable refugees get to safety.
“The risk is real, it’s the front lines of war” said Ferrin Cole, an entrepreneur and member of AVL City Center in Asheville. “You can hear fire and explosions, but the risk is worth it when there’s people involved.”
Cole, who we met up with in Hendersonville Friday afternoon, says he and his team are heading back to Ukraine next week.
“I have a team of about 8 people,” he told FOX Carolina. “We do war logistics, so we figure out how to get people in and out of areas safely.”
He says the last time he was there was about 2 weeks into the conflict, adding he’s proud of the fact that they will be far from empty handed on their return.
“We were able to find a connection that was able to donate 70 bulletproof vests, and was able to get them to our contact who is going to Ukraine,” said Jack Connolly of Ferrin and his team. Connolly is the head of the Greenville-based Direct Support Ukraine.
He says when he put the plea out a short while back, he never thought he’d be able to find supplies and get them send out so fast, until a mutual friend introduced him to Cole.
“Jack called me and said ‘hey I’ve got 70 bulletproof vests I want to drop off that I had donated, can you get them into Ukraine?’ And that’s what we do,” Cole said.
But it didn’t stop there.
“He just happened to know someone who sews military equipment,” Connolly explained.
And it’s true. Cole says another mutual friend who knew how to re-work tactical military gear helped refurbish some of the vests that were donated, which had fallen into disrepair. That same helper actually sewed new straps onto about 15 vests.
Connolly says without Cole and the contributions made to get all the equipment up to snuff, and add things like adjustable straps so that the vests could fit more than one type of person, they would have never been able to get the equipment ready this soon.
Cole flies out Monday to head back to the conflict. When we talked to him on Friday, the vests were already in several heavy suitcases, ready to be transported to humanitarian volunteers overseas.
“We’re really talking about the most vulnerable populations,” Ferrin said of the people their workers help. “The women, the children, and the elderly being brought back from behind enemy lines. That’s what we train drivers to do: to go in, get them, bring them back to safety, then transport them to Poland.”
Cole and Connolly both say they’re angered that their colleagues’ rescue operations haven’t been able to be conducted in peace, and worried that Russian troops have harmed their friends. That’s why they say that protecting even one worker from harm will make this whole operation worth it.
“All we’ve been trying to do is help Ukraine in any way possible,” Connolly said. “It’s the people that we know there: our friends, our family, and other volunteers risking their lives. They didn’t ask for their country to be invaded, but it was, and they stepped up. It’s the least we can do.”
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