While returning from the ambulance mission, we said amongst ourselves that we could take a little break from our usual tactical and medical assistance and instead do something to bring joy to the children. We intended to put smiles on their faces and take their minds off the horrors of war, at least for a little while.
Word was given and we decided to approach the children's home in Vinnitsa. We asked for a list of the children and the wishes they wanted to fulfill or what they needed. Unfortunately, our communication with the home was a little difficult. Our colleague Ondra, who is a doctor, decided to spread the idea of "Operation Baby Jesus" on social networks. However, due to communication problems, we still have not received a list of children. December was inexorably approaching and so, as a back-up plan, we turned to the recommendation of Ruslan Telipsky, who works in two charities, "So Needed" and "Patrons for the Soldier", which help orphans whose parents were members of the armed forces.
On December 1, we finally received the list of needs for 55 children in Vinnitsa, with the main item on the list being the clothing needed. We named this event "Operation Baby Jesus". Around 3am we received a message from Ruslan with a list of the children his organization was taking care of. The number 396 surprised us, but after the first shock we got down to business. We called the gifts for the children from Ruslan's foundation "Operation Stasis" because the grandmother of one of our members was from Lutsk, where the gifts were destined.
The fever of preparation, communication on social media, collecting donations from various carriers and donors began. Some team members even sacrificed part of their homes to have a place to temporarily store the materials.
The first phase of "Operation Baby Jesus" was successfully carried out when we loaded one and a half vans with children's clothes and hygiene products for the children's home in Vinnitsa. It was a special moment for us to stop at the children's home on the way to the front line and hand over the material. We even had to split the team in Vinnitsa, with three vehicles continuing to the Bachmut section of the front line and one empty van returning to our country. Now it was necessary to prepare for "Operation Stasis". The van members returned to Prague on 20 December. The preparation and wrapping of presents was hectic, but besides the team members, we also had help from outside volunteers, such as Aranka, who became part of the team, or Lu and Jakub, who sacrificed their Christmas Eve and drove all the way to the border area to wrap presents. And also other individuals who contributed.
The loading of materials started on December 24 and the van full of presents started westwards on December 25. After several stops to add materials, it arrived in Lutsk on December 26. Here we discovered that there were more children than we had originally expected, but thanks to the support of our sponsors and also a small error in our calculations, we had enough gifts for every child.
The team returned safely back to our country on 27 December. For the T4U organization, the execution of these two events has been a record-breaking success so far. Within 10 days we managed to carry out two supply drives in Ukraine with the same team of people, during the busy Christmas period. We helped hundreds of children to forget for a while about the problems around them and the horrors of war.
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