Ukraine

Coeliacs in need for help in Ukraine

  • 8th March 2022
  • 3 min read

Emergency Fund for Ukranian coeliacs

The war on Ukraine has created a situation where currently over 1 million people have fled the country. If the war escalates many more will seek refuge and people remaining in Ukraine will face unimaginable hardship. This will create an intolerable humanitarian crisis and there is an urgent need for providing refugees with both shelter and food.

Other organisations are actively working with this, but the capacity to cater for people with coeliac disease is very limited or sometimes does not exist.

Even in crisis, people with coeliac disease still need to eat gluten-free food to be able to function and endure the privation.

Help now

Coeliacs helping coeliacs affected by the war on Ukraine

National Coeliac Societies in the neighbouring countries to Ukraine have already been able to provide food to coeliacs inside Ukraine and at the borders thanks to food donations from gluten-free food producers. But much remains to be done to cope with the massive stream of refugees and increasing difficulties of finding gluten-free food inside Ukraine.

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

For this reason, we have decided to install an emergency fund to administer and manage donations to support Ukrainian coeliacs in need.

Funds needed for storage, transports and human resources

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
  • Arrange transportation and logistics for sending gluten-free food to Ukraine
  • Additional human resources costs
AOECS Emergency Fund

How can you help

Companies and private individuals can support by sending donations to the AOECS Central Emergency Fund with the following bank details:

Bank name: KBC Banque Brussels
IBAN: BE66 7360 3218 2543
SWIFT/BIC: KREDBEBB
Mark payment with: “Donation for Ukrainian Coeliacs”

If you rather want to donate to a local bank in your country, please visit the website of the National Coeliac Society in your country or contact them for advice.