Moldovan aid mission

2:23pm Tuesday 13th May 2008

Comments (2)   Have your say »

A financial advisor from Watford has joined a team of volunteers who are driving Transit vans to Moldova to deliver much-needed aid - as well as the vans themselves - to deprived communities in the Eastern European country.

John Chody was one of 11 volunteers who set off from London with the intention of driving almost 3,000 miles, through five countries and across an entire continent in just four days.

If all goes well they hope to arrive on Thursday.

Each person has raised £5,000 for the trip - money which has been spent on the vans and travel costs.

When the team arrive in Kishinev, the capital city of Moldova, they will distribute blankets, clothing and household goods to isolated communities in the former Soviet country, before leaving the three vans there and flying home.

John, of Green Lane in Oxhey, said: "The idea is that if we can deliver transit vans to the community down there they will then have the means of getting the elderly and disabled in the community around and visiting the surrounding areas."

It will also mean that when aid is delivered to the country, which is ranked as the poorest in Europe, it should get to the hardest to reach pockets of society.

The group, who are travelling as part of the World Jewish Relief (WJR) charity, set off Sunday morning and were scheduled to have over-night stops in Frankfurt, Budapest and "somewhere in Romania" before they arriving in Moldova on Wednesday.

Once there, the group will meet the local communities, many of which live in isolation and with very little money, before jetting home.

John, who is 49 years old, added: "Moldova has some of the poorest people in Europe. They have had poor harvests over the last couple of years and are reliant open Ukraine and Russia for gas.

"We will all spend three or four days with the community meeting some of the families and then at the weekend we will pay a special visit to an orphanage in Kishinev where we will present them with toys and gifts before flying home."

The trip is John's first with WJR and follows similar projects to Ukraine and Belarus in the past couple of years - both of which John was unable to join.

Before setting off he said he was looking forward to the experience, even though he admitted not know any of his fellow travellers and was unsure what he would find once there.

"From my point of view I'm looking forward to the drive down when I'm sure we will have a laugh and then it will be a really eye opening experience when we are there."

John added: "I am very excited by the trip and I'm really excited to be meeting the people down there who are going to benefit from this."