Cork's Penny Dinners leads volunteers on humanitarian mission to Ukraine border

A last-minute injury didn’t stop volunteers from Cork’s oldest charity setting off on a humanitarian mission to the Ukrainian border in Poland.

On Tuesday evening, six volunteers from Cork Penny Dinners left Cork for Dublin, and on then for Poland, where they will distribute some 80 tonnes of humanitarian aid donated by the people of Cork.

The volunteers’ take-off was delayed slightly when Penny Dinners’ co-ordinator Caitriona Twomey caught her hand in the door of the Penny Dinners van, but, never a woman to be deterred, a visit to the Mercy emergency department saw her quickly sorted with a cast.

This will be the third Penny Dinners mission to the Ukrainian border.

In March of this year, five volunteers teamed up with members of Cork City Missing Person Search and Recovery driving across Europe in laden vans to bring 15 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the Ukrainian border in Poland.

Caitriona Twomey told The Echo two articulated lorries, carrying 80 tonnes of aid, had left Cork last Thursday.

“Our plan is that we have locations to take the aid to, having liaised with some people here on the ground from Ukraine, and some people who are in Ukraine at the minute,” Ms Twomey said.

“We will land in Kraków on Wednesday and we will go straight to Tarnów, where we pick up the vans, and then we’re going to Leżajsk.

“At Leżajsk, we will meet the artics, and we will unload them and sort our loads for each place we’re delivering aid to,” Ms Twomey said.

Among the items being delivered to the Ukrainian border are three electrical generators, which will be brought to orphanages and hospitals in Ukraine.

• Echo reporter Donal O’Keeffe is travelling to the Ukrainian border with the Cork Penny Dinners humanitarian mission. Read his daily diary reports on www.echolive.ie.