Over the past year, Marc Edward Pace Portanier and his team estimate they have helped over 10,000 Ukrainians impacted by Russia’s war.
“Back when we started, we would drive to the border from Poland in a rental car and start delivering food by ‘ransacking’ food from supermarket shelves,” the Maltese volunteer said.
The team now travels on roads littered with artillery shells only a kilometre-and-a-half away from the Russian military.
“We heard cluster bombs going off within a kilometre of us. Everything was within a kilometre.”
Pace Portanier visited war-torn Ukraine several times over the past year, his most recent one in January to the cities of Bakhmut and Kharkiv. He forms part of the Change a Life Foundation, a charity helping Ukrainians.
A day before Orthodox Christmas on January 6, Pace Portanier was in Ukraine delivering supplies and shuttling Ukrainians to safety or nearby shelters.
Pace Portanier together with charity vice president Wojciech Sielicki and other volunteers delivered supplies during what should have been the country’s festive season.
The supplies included basics such as food, medicine and insulin pens, hygiene products such as soaps and sanitary towels, generators and even toys for children.
The team also brought over 30 bin bags stuffed with warm winter clothes which were picked up from donation centres in Poland and Ukraine while most of the other items were bought using donated funds – most of which came from Maltese citizens.
“For the past couple of weeks, we have had a team on the ground in Chasiv Yar (about 15km away from Bakhmut) and other areas while we provide support from here. They have been delivering supplies and aiding with evacuations,” he explained.
SOS Malta helps
When Russia first invaded Ukraine last year, NGO SOS Malta sent a two-week emergency mission to the border.
SOS partnered with a Romanian NGO which was trucking aid into the country as they purchased official emergency-listed supplies from Romania, SOS Malta CEO Claudia Taylor-East explained.
The SOS Malta team also assisted displaced Ukrainians as they found themselves lost at the border.
Volunteers would help direct mothers, grandmothers and children to aid centres with the aim of helping them reach their destination in Europe while purchasing mobile cards, chargers and airfares to facilitate their journey.
However, since then, the NGO has turned its sights onto more familiar shores as Ukrainian refugees began pouring into Malta afflicted with psychological trauma, difficult economic situations and a lack of language skills.
“One of SOS Malta’s main areas of concern was to explore the possibility of offering psychological support to any Ukrainian who needed it which saw us employing a Ukrainian psychologist to work on our online support platform kellimni.com,” Taylor-East said.
“SOS Malta is presently supporting children and their parents attending the Induction Hub in Naxxar, and in the process of developing a programme for English learning.
416 received protection
The Maltese government has focused on supporting humanitarian efforts both within the war-torn nation and in Malta as refugees seek aid.
In the first three months of Russia’s invasion, more than 1,000 Ukrainians arrived in Malta. Most of those claiming refuge were women, according to the National Statistics Office.
By May, 416 citizens received temporary protection.
From March 2022 till December of the same year, Malta provided around €1.7 million in emergency assistance to Ukraine mostly in the form of medical equipment and supplies, Foreign Affairs Minister Ian Borg said.
In January, the government said the country will be sending 20 industrial generators and more medicinal supplies to Ukraine, adding a further €370,000 to Malta’s war efforts.