Stop the war now

The caravan headed to Ukraine, organized by the "Stop The War Now" network made up of over 180 Italian civil society organizations, left Padua. A group of 150 volunteers from numerous Italian cities is traveling with 30 vans loaded with 20 tons of humanitarian aid and 20 power generators.
They are directed to Odessa and Mykolaiv to concretely support the civilian population.

The generators were purchased thanks to the fundraising that took place in the CGIL offices and the contribution of the Diocese of Bologna and will be donated to the reception centers managed by the FPU union and to the pediatric hospital of Odessa, they will be used to feed water desalination plants, shelters anti-aircraft and some centers for the distribution of humanitarian aid of Caritas.
«As a network, explained Giampiero Cofano of the Pope John XXIII Community, we propose a nonviolent civil presence: we will not carry weapons, but concrete aid and a sign of brotherhood. In fact, the desire to live in conflict is alive in civil society, going to share life with people involved in a war they did not choose.
We ask for dialogue, the reopening of peace negotiations because unfortunately the beginning of spring marks a period of anguish for Ukraine: the thaw leads to a recrudescence of the conflict".

Among the volunteers was the writer Erri De Luca who declared: «We are unarmed volunteers who bring together with the fraternity some kind of subsistence, medicines, food, diapers for the youngest children of the orphanage.
Let's show a little fraternity, our people, the Italian people are close to an attacked European people, we can't do more than this, let's show our closeness. We are simply a delegation of all those who have helped us to fill these vans, all those who have made us take these trips with their donations, I have already made ten, we are a delegation of a people of Europe who are alongside this other people, we cannot decide the fate of war, we can declare the fate of peace [...]. Ukraine is located in one of the deserts of history, we bring a few drops that are never wasted in a desert".

Fabrizio Floris
NP May 2023