Driver by profession and living in Famalicão for about 20 years, Anatoliy Gavryshchuk is facing one of the most difficult trips he has ever made. With his entire family still in Ukraine, in the city of Vinnytsia, more than 300 kilometres from Kiev, he took the road to Chelm, on the border between Poland and Ukraine, at the wheel of one of the three trucks and two vans that left Famalicão on Monday morning with humanitarian aid for the Ukrainian people.
The SOS Famalicão/Ukraine operation is already on the road, and the first 100 tons of essential goods - food, hygiene, first aid and clothing - donated by Famalicão's civil society should arrive at their destination within days.
This morning, at the start of the humanitarian mission to the road, the Mayor, Mário Passos, praised the "overwhelming response" of the famalicense society that is, once again, giving a great demonstration of their solidarity spirit.
The wave of solidarity created in Famalicão with the Ukrainian people was also praised by Pedro Costa, CEO of Raclac, a company that manufactures and designs medical devices and protective products that together with the City Council is collecting and coordinating humanitarian aid in the county with collection points for donations in all parish councils, schools, IPSS's and other institutions.
This first mission has the support of the transport companies KLOG, Transportes Nogueira and AMS, Lda.
It should be noted that the SOS Famalicão/Ukraine project is being articulated with the Embassy of Ukraine in Portugal.