The Rotary and Inner Wheel clubs of Inverness are creating a massive collection and appeal to support the people of the war-torn areas of Ukraine, who are now facing their fifth year under attack.

For the past four years, the members of the four Rotary clubs based in the city,  along with Inverness Inner Wheel, have been working on a weekly basis to collect donations from businesses, organisations and caring individuals all round the area to send to Ukraine.

In cooperation with local charity Highlands for Ukraine the club members have not only sent thousands of donations of medical, food and hygiene products they have also combined their efforts to fund and personally deliver eight 4×4 pick-ups to Ukraine to be used to rescue the badly injured from the battlefields, evacuate civilians from areas about to be invaded by enemy forces and deliver much-needed essential supplies to the “hottest” of the front-line areas.

But they cannot do any of it without the backing and assistance of local residents so are holding a two-day “bring and donate” effort based in the car park of the Asda superstore this Saturday and Sunday.

Members of the Inverness, Culloden, Riverside and Loch Ness clubs along with the women of Inverness Inner Wheel will be in attendance near the store entrance from 10 till 4 on both March 7 and 8 to accept donations from the public that have been specially asked for by their charity partners at Highlands for Ukraine. H4U only deliver to  front-line communities where the most need exists and only send what their partners in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Sumy and Kramatorsk ask for.

The appeal includes such items as medical and first aid, long-life food, hygiene products and a less well-established category, laptops and tech.

Organiser Sandy Murray of the Inverness Club explains: “There is a wide range of essentials our partner charity in this project asks us to collect – anything from a packet of Paracetamol to a generator! And of course 4x4s that we have been proud to send to the front line for the past three years now.

“We are asking the kind people of Inverness and surrounding communities to help us create a mega-collection this weekend in the Asda car park as the Ukraine appeal turns from winter into spring and new essentials are needed. We are happy to accept a new toothbrush or a tin of beans that cost just a few pence or any useful and generous donation people may no longer have a use for in their own homes, such as old laptops or PCs. We have a great demand for all types of technology these days as children in the eastern areas cannot attend school, it’s too dangerous, so have to study from home or in bomb shelters and we can’t supply them with enough laptops, Chromebooks, in fact all types of tech that is maybe old but still working. We wipe all personal data securely and refurbish such items.”

He added that one category that is definitely not needed however is clothing, footwear and bedding. “We would appeal to people not to bring such products as more of these are definitely not needed in the front line communities. Many people are kind enough to donate such items but there is now such a back-log that it creates issues logistically and financially for the charity attempting to dispose of them either here or in Ukraine.

“We do sometimes need new clothing suitable for casualties to wear in hospitals following attacks but these are the exception. For example, the t-shirts MacGregor’s Bar donated recently would fit that bill as they are not only new but lightweight and easily laundered.

“Food is always a necessity of course so you can’t go wrong by donating a can of soup or something more practical like a packet of bandages or wound dressings.

“We hope the kind folk of the Highlands will make this a really successful collection to help those who are facing almost unbelievably harsh conditions in eastern Ukraine into their fifth year now. We cannot begin to imagine their lives as every single day for four years their communities continue to be bombed, targeted by drones or have missiles hit their homes, hospitals and schools. And the ones who cannot or won’t leave their homes tend to be the vulnerable, elderly, infirm or the poor. Many are still living among burned out buildings and villages with little more than rubble around them.”

On display outside the superstore also will be one of the 4x4s that is destined to reach the war zone in the next few weeks to help with the life-saving operations. It tends to be only at the very last minute that many civilians are persuaded to leave their homes so these pick-ups, four-wheel-drives and jeeps are vital in Ukraine.

All the items collected next weekend will be destined for the communities on the 1,000km front-line of the war where civilians come under attack day and night without let-up. Other areas of Ukraine are constantly under alert but those attempting to live out their lives just kilometers from the fighting are facing appalling conditions, with civilian lives being lost every single day of the invasion. War crimes against civilians are recorded daily in these areas. 

To see which items are most urgently needed in large amounts by front-line civilians they can be found on the pages What We Need and Special Needs