Our Coaches2Ukraine mission

On Thursday 28th April, we first accomplished our mission of bringing home 91 refugees to safety from Ukraine in two coaches, accompanied by translators, a medic and volunteers. We continued to fund, with the help of local businesses, our valued clients and generous donations, further trips from Ukraine to the UK until the 15th August.

We have since joined forces with another support group to continue to help the people of Ukraine make it to safety to the UK.

We want to extend our thanks to everyone who helped us make this mission a reality. To the wonderful volunteers, medics, translators, coach drivers and everyone who donated, thank you.

Below is a little reflection of everything we achieved together in our Coaches 2 Ukraine mission.

Coaches2Ukraine, who sponsored and supported organising the trip, was created by local business owners and volunteers with the original idea being that of Malcolm Palmer, Managing Partner here at A4G. We also had a number of their team working hard behind the scenes to help make the trip a success.

The idea came to Malcolm after being fixated on the events in Ukraine since the Russian invasion and the humanitarian crisis emerging in bordering countries, especially Poland. He said he had got involved as there didn’t seem to be any forward planning or any central organisations that were linking people together.

On Thursday 28th April, 2 coaches organised by Coaches2Ukraine left an exhibition centre / refugee camp (Ptak Expo) located about 25 minutes from the centre of Warsaw. On board were 91 Ukrainian Refugees accompanied by translators, a medic and volunteers.

The coaches arrived about 11am on Friday 29th April at Hartley Country Club near Longfield in Kent and were greeted by their hosts, plus volunteers who provided food, drinks and toys for the children who had made the near 1,000-mile trip from Warsaw.

We also helped to bring a further 27 guests with pets to the UK on 19th May, thanks to the hard work of Black Taxis for Ukraine.

The Coaches2Ukraine model was then used for others to run their own coaches and help save more refugees and we continued to fundraise more money to organise following trips.