SSEES Society organise donation drive for Ukraine

From Monday 28th February, our student volunteers have organised over four lorry loads of donations holding over 1,500 boxes of essential aid. More than 60 different students from across UCL and the wider London university community joined us to help receive donations, sort, pack, and transport.  

UCL SSEES became the central hub for various London universities wanting to organise collection drives. SSEES Society collaborated with King's College London (KCL), The London School of Economics (LSE) Raising and Giving Society, and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) World Development Society.  

Other UCL societies also organised collection drives including UCL LGBTQ+ Network and UCL Salsa Society. We also received donations from various schools such as Maria Fidelis Sixth Form and Grasmere School as well as university accommodation buildings such as the Postgraduate Accommodation Goodenough College. 

SSEES Society has been able to donate aid directly to Lviv in Ukraine through partnership with an East London-based Ukrainian shipping company, UkayExpress, which has been transporting goods in partnership with Meest Group from London to Ukraine for over 10 years. 

On Thursday they stopped normal shipping and focused on shipping humanitarian goods. All our supplies are arriving via UkayExpress to Meest Group’s humanitarian aid hub directly in Lviv. 

There have been many students involved in this project however those that have helped really lead the initiative are SSEES Students: Freya Proudman, Ana Boikova, Ludwik Zdort, Jack Dean (SSEES Soc Postgrad officer), Konstantin Dilchev (SSEES Soc Freshers Rep), and Laura Steinke. SSEES cannot thank them and all volunteers enough for their incredible effort and commitment.  

SSEES Soc are holding two further collection dates on Wednesday 9th March (2pm-7pm) and Thursday 10th March (10am-4pm). 

All donations will get to the humanitarian aid hub in Lviv through UkayExpress and we are currently communicating with some Red Cross volunteers in Ukraine who are planning to pick up donations in Lviv to drive them to Kharkiv. 

For more information on essential supplies, please check the SSEES Soc Instagram page.  

For more ways to help, check out our SSEES on Ukraine webpages.