{"id":12502,"date":"2026-10-31T18:58:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T18:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesmallprojects.org\/?p=12502"},"modified":"2026-10-31T19:06:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T19:06:04","slug":"ambulance-charente-kramatorsk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesmallprojects.org\/en\/ambulance-charente-kramatorsk\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 3,600 km for our ambulance, from Angoul\u00eame to Kramatorsk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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More than 3,600 kilometres on the road. And at the end of it, an ambulance that starts saving lives in Kramatorsk this weekend.<\/p>

This is the story of a wonderful chain of solidarity.<\/p>

A donation from SDIS 16<\/strong><\/p>

It all starts in Angoul\u00eame, in the Charente, where we were able to collect a magnificent ambulance, handed over by Ms \u00c9milie Richaud, president of SDIS 16.<\/p>

This donation was made possible thanks to Nadia Sollogoub, Senator for the Ni\u00e8vre and chair of the Senate\u2019s France-Ukraine friendship group. For several months, she has been mobilising her colleagues to collect ambulances, which we deliver to Ukraine, to associations we choose for the importance of their impact.<\/p>

Fran\u00e7ois Bonneau, Senator for the Charente, approached by Nadia Sollogoub, passed on our request to SDIS 16 with enthusiasm and efficiency.<\/p>

To the Ni\u00e8vre, then Paris<\/strong><\/p>

The ambulance then travelled to the Ni\u00e8vre. There, the association Fraternit\u00e9 Ni\u00e8vre Ukraine (AFNU)<\/a>, led by Nadia Sollogoub and Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Lajeunesse, filled it with medical equipment and computers collected from private donors.<\/p>

Then came Paris. We presented the ambulance to His Excellency the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to France, Vadym Omelchenko, at a small key-handover ceremony. Surrounded by some twenty members of the embassy, we were joined by Nadia Sollogoub, Fran\u00e7ois Bonneau, Member of Parliament Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Petit and our friend and benefactor Olivier Mitterrand.<\/p>

Paris \u2013 Lviv \u2013 Dnipro \u2013 Kramatorsk<\/strong><\/p>

Then it was off to Ukraine. Two humanitarian workers from the association ULIS (Unit\u00e9 L\u00e9g\u00e8re d\u2019Intervention et de Secours), based in Saint-Laurent-du-Var, volunteered to drive the ambulance from Paris to Lviv.<\/p>

And in Lviv, for the long crossing of the country towards the eastern front, Member of Parliament Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Petit took over. He drove across Ukraine from west to east as far as Dnipro. There, he handed the ambulance over to our friends from the Kramatorsk Organisation of Volunteers<\/strong><\/a> (KOV).<\/p>

From Dnipro, the ambulance continued on to Kramatorsk, where it is already in service. It will be used for vital medical evacuations, in an extremely dangerous context. Sadly, the life of an ambulance in Kramatorsk is often short. We hope this one lasts.<\/p>

Our friend, the British journalist Anna Bowles, wrote an article about the KOV on\u00a0her Substack<\/a>. She describes how these volunteers evacuate civilians from areas where other teams no longer dare to go.<\/p>

Its founder, Bohdan, shares their daily life on instagram<\/a>.<\/p>

Thank you to everyone who made this journey possible. Everyone did their part of the road.<\/p>

And it isn\u2019t over<\/strong><\/p>

By the end of the year, we are expecting three more ambulances. The next one will leave from the Bouches-du-Rh\u00f4ne at the end of November. We will tell you more very soon.<\/p>

Getting an ambulance to the people who need it takes time, organisation and, above all, volunteers ready to take the road. We are a 100% volunteer team, with no overhead. Every euro donated goes directly to our work on the ground.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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