The World Rescue Corps NGO USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) carried out an audacious first mission in Ukraine from 13 to 19 March. We take a closer look at this operation, in which Tulipe took part, with the NGO’s President, Éric Zipper.
It was also their first mission in a war zone, as members of the CMS USAR normally intervene in natural disasters. With their president and head of mission, Éric Zipper, they transported medical supplies to Ukraine, including several emergency kits donated by the Tulipe association, essential foodstuffs and equipment, and protective clothing.
The USAR World Relief Corps team on its first mission to Ukraine, with Eric Zipper in the centre (Photo CMS USAR)
“Perfectly calibrated canteens of health products”.
“As soon as the conflict in Ukraine began, I approached our counterparts and friends at GOPR to ask them if they could give us reliable information on the precise needs of the Ukrainians. They got back to us the very next day with a precise list including haemostasis equipment, medical supplies, warm dark clothes for men, baby milk, dehydrated food, etc.”, explains Éric Zipper. Once again, the President of the NGO approached the Tulipe association: “ We’ve been working with Tulipe for several years now and we’re always satisfied with the quality of the donations and the association’s agility and responsiveness. It prepares perfectly calibrated canteens of health products, which means that when the donations are received, we can find all the equipment and medicines we need”, he adds. Several organisations, groups and companies have also made donations for this mission, including Colmar Rotary and the Alsace town’s civil hospitals.
Canteens containing emergency health kits donated by Tulipe loaded onto a convoy bound for Lviv (Photo CMS USAR)
A load divided into three parts
A semi-trailer had to be chartered to transport the 32 tonnes of donations to Ukraine. The team, comprising Éric Zipper, doctor Jean-Marie Haegy, logistician Pascal Chauvin, technicians Jean-Louis Bonnemains and Yannick Chavannes, and lorry driver Nicolas, left Colmar on 12 March. They arrived in Krakow the following day, escorted since their arrival in Poland by members of their Polish counterparts from GOPR (the Polish assembly rescue organisation). On 14 March, the World Relief Corps team went to the GOPR offices in Sanok Rownia, 8 km from the Ukrainian border. The members of the NGO then got together with the local authorities and Polish relief workers to discuss the best way of transporting the donations to Lviv and Kiev. For greater efficiency, the load of donations is split into three parts. “One part is unloaded in Rzeszów (Poland) and two vans carrying the medical equipment, including that donated by Tulipe, head for Lviv,” explains Éric Zipper.
A doctor inspecting a Tulipe canteen (Photo CMS USAR)
Accompanied to Ukraine by Poland’s number 3 government official
The head of mission then headed for Lviv, accompanied by Małgorzata Maria Gosiewska, Vice-President of the Polish Sejm (lower house of parliament) and number three in the Polish state. “Given the importance of the mission, Ms Gosiewska was keen to come with us to facilitate border crossings and ensure that the entire shipment made its way to Lviv and Kiev. In Lviv, we were received by the administrator when the donations were handed over”, stresses the head of mission who, for security reasons, is the only member of the World Relief Corps to travel to Ukraine.
Éric Zipper in the centre with Małgorzata Maria Gosiewska, number three in the Polish government, who accompanied the convoy of donations to Ukraine (Photo CMS USAR)
Other humanitarian missions to come in Ukraine
“This was my first mission in a war zone. I had already been to Asia, during the Tsunami in 2004, and to Haiti during the earthquake in 2010… but this was very different, particularly in terms of organisation”, notes Éric Zipper.
A forthcoming mission by the USAR World Relief Corps to the hospitals of Kiev is planned, to be followed by another in which other emergency canteens donated by Tulipe are to be transported.
