AOECS sets up a Central Emergency Fund for donations to Ukrainian Coeliacs

AOECS has installed a central emergency fund to centralise the management of donations to support Ukrainian coeliacs.

The money collected will be used to support the National Coeliac Societies based in Ukraine’s neighboring countries, which are actively receiving Ukrainian war refugees.

Current situation

National Coeliac Societies in the neighbouring countries to Ukraine have already been able to provide food to coeliacs inside Ukraine and to refugees. Still, much work remains to be able to cope with the massive stream of refugees and the increasing difficulties of finding gluten-free food inside Ukraine.

Even if other help organisations are actively working with bringing food to refugees the capacity to cater for people with coeliac disease is often very limited or sometimes does not exist. People with coeliac disease still need to eat gluten-free food to be able to function and endure the situation.

How will donations be used

The donations will be used to:

• arrange and deliver gluten-free food to the coeliacs in Ukraine, led by the Polish Coeliac Society in close coordination with the Ukrainian Coeliac Society.
• arrange and deliver gluten-free food to coeliac refugees in those countries that are welcoming them.
• provide Ukrainian coeliac refugees with advice on the specifics of the gluten-free diet in hosting countries, moral support and gathering events to alleviate some of the stress.

How can people support now

Companies and private individuals can support sending donations either to:

• The National Coeliac Society of their own country, stating in the explanation row “Donation for Ukranian Coeliacs”.
  

or,

• The AOECS Central Emergency Fund with following bank details:

Why money instead of food right now

At the moment, there is no shortage of gluten-free food thanks to donations from regional food producers of gluten-free food mainly situated in Poland, Latvia, Hungary and Romania. The priority right now is to raise funds mainly to:

• Cover costs for storing non-perishable gluten-free food products.
• Manage costs for arranging transportation and logistics for sending gluten-free food to Ukraine.
• Cover additional human resources costs.

Support in the medium- and long term

In the medium- and long term, the AOECS Ukrainian Crisis Committee foresees important efforts needed to support Ukrainian families with coeliac members to recover from the war trauma as well as getting social integration in their hosting countries.

Even if at the moment, there is enough gluten-free food being donated from food producers from the region (e.g. from Poland, Latvia, Hungary or Romania), in the long-term there may be a need for gluten-free food product donations, including specific food products not produced in that region.

National Coeliac Societies will be actively gathering interest and information among their licence holders.

If you are a food producer and would like to donate gluten-free food products, please get in touch with the National Coeliac Society of your own country to coordinate the best timing and destination for your donation. You can find contact details here.