Serhii Morhunov Thanked the Community of Karlsruhe for Another Humanitarian Aid for Medical Institutions and Schools

Another humanitarian aid shipment collected by residents of our sister city Karlsruhe has arrived in Vinnytsia. Our German partners do not stand aside and organize fairs and charity events to support Vinnytsia community. This time they sent us two huge trucks filled with various things. Most of them are intended for our educational institutions and hospitals.

Vinnytsia Mayor Serhii Morhunov thanked the community of Karlsruhe and Mayor Frank Mentrup for their concern and support for Vinnytsia residents.

"We will be able to strengthen our hospitals with new beds, cabinets and trolleys. And we will equip shelters in educational institutions with desks, chairs and blackboards so that children can comfortably wait out the air raid and even continue their studies. To collect the two trucks of aid, themed fairs were organized in the German city, involving not only the indigenous population, but also Ukrainians, the local Jewish community and business representatives under the leadership of the German municipality," said Serhii Morhunov. "We are sincerely grateful that the community of Karlsruhe does not stand aside and continues to help Vinnytsia. Support from partners is extremely important and gives us hope that together we can overcome all challenges!"

Our German friends managed to fit a lot of humanitarian aid in the trucks. In addition to supplies for Vinnytsia's educational institutions and hospitals, there were many items for babies and older children, including strollers, cribs, high chairs and car seats, clothes and shoes, backpacks, diapers and toys, etc. In addition, numerous boxes contained neatly folded outerwear for women and men, mattresses and blankets wrapped in plastic, and various household items.

According to Deputy Mayor Andrii Ocheretnyi, Karlsruhe residents have once again surprised us with their concern and willingness to lend a shoulder in difficult times.

"This is not the first aid from Karlsruhe that Vinnytsia has received. It was the first city to respond to the blackouts in Ukraine. Last year, they equipped 11 mobile resilience centers for our city with tents, generators, heaters, plank floors, beds, extension cords and other necessary equipment. Later, they handed over two fire trucks to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Vinnytsia region, as well as two vans that are working on the construction of Municipal Housing, where the largest quota is allocated to combatants. In August, we received a major donation to keep our critical infrastructure functioning properly - a modern garbage truck that was transferred to the balance sheet of the EkoVin utility company. In fact, our cooperation with the German sister city is constantly expanding and we are grateful for their help. We hope that with such support we will be able to survive the winter period more easily," said Andrii Ocheretnyi.

Olena Danilova, Chairman of the Board of the Podilska Hromada Foundation, added that our sister cities keep their finger on the pulse and always respond and come to the aid of Vinnytsia residents when needed.

"We still have a lot of needs and our sister cities are the ones who collect and bring us something. This is a variety of aid - food, clothing, footwear, bedding, blankets and pillows, hygiene products and much, much more," added Olena Danilova.

The communication between Vinnytsia and Karlsruhe began in the spring of 2022 on the initiative of the German side to establish sister city relations with Vinnytsia City Territorial Community. It is since then that our communities have established close friendly relations.

"Our establishment of sister city relations is a unique example. Only nine months passed from our first contact with the municipality and community of Karlsruhe to the signing of the twinning agreement between our cities. As our German partners note, they have never had such an experience before. The shortest way they went from acquaintance to official signing was with the French city of Nancy, and it took five years. We have gone this way in 9 months and have an interesting continuation, because our community was offered to join the formation of a "triangle of interaction" between Karlsruhe, Nancy and Vinnytsia," added Andrii Ocheretnyi.