At 5am on Sunday 10 April 2022 three Gwent men set off on a drive across Europe to Wrocław in Poland. The trio’s job was to deliver 1000s of items donated by local communities for refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Gareth James, from Abergavenny, John Ward from Abersychan, and Steve Malson, from Penygarn, arrived at the donation centre on Tuesday to a grateful reception from the staff. Their van was packed with items including food, medical, sanitary supplies, nappies and baby products kindly donated over the last couple of weeks.
Gareth and John work for Bron Afon, and Steve is part of the team at Torfaen charity TRAC2. I met them in Trevethin on Saturday as they were making the final preparations with their load and filmed this video (scroll down). They chatted while sitting on the back of their low loader.
The idea to help refugees from the war came from Gareth. He texted John, a workmate, who agreed to join him. The idea caught the attention of their employers, friends, family and the community. Within days donations started to grow and TRAC2 joined the appeal and used their base as a drop-off point. Bron Afon paid for the van hire and fuel and ATS Care in Abersychan paid for their hotels. Within days Gareth’s plan had become a reality.
Steve thought he couldn’t join them as he found out his passport was out-of-date a few days before they were due to leave. But his last-minute race to renew it was successful. He arrived in Trevethin at 1pm on Saturday proudly waving his new passport before he had to head home to pack for the departure 16 hours later.
“We knew we had made a difference”
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Gareth said: “We met Igor Grybachov and his team and offloaded the aid that you all have generously donated. Through broken English and lots of handshakes we knew that we had made a difference. This is an experience that will live with us for many years to come. Thank you.”
