Now that life has been put on hold, ordinary activities have stopped and days are marked by curfew times, everyone has made themselves available to support their country and the people who need help most. Sometimes the paths of aid take unexpected and unforeseen routes, leading to encounters that leave their mark on you. So, as soon as the war broke out, through a word of mouth that started in Ukraine and went through Spain to Italy, to Padua, we came into contact with Vrb, a Ukrainian NGO, active in the city of Chernivsti since 2014. Since the war broke out in Donbass, it has been helping internal refugees and the people at the front, distributing medicine, food and clothing. The face of VRB is Natalia, a lawyer from Kyiv, originally from Chernivsti, who returned here to escape the war in Kyiv; VRB’s eyes are Katharina, a businesswoman and the NGO’s president; Its smile is of Anastasya and Andrei, two final-year medical students who organize the storage of medicine in an improvised warehouse and its distribution. And it has the experience of Igor, a surgeon and Natalia’s husband. He was the medical director of the city of Chernivsti for 10 years.
Giovanna de Meneghi, International Relations Department
