The SASA Setton Foundation has partnered with Israeli airline El Al and sports organization Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Center for Jewish Impact to provide essential aid items to the families of Ukrainian refugees.
The cooperation, which begins on Monday, will see the groups send medical and consumer products, among other basic and essential aid items, to heads of the Jewish communities in Bucharest, Romania – where the refugees have taken refuge.
Delivery will include medicine baskets, baby and child food, essential hygiene products, pills and Maccabi Tel Aviv merchandise. The medicine basket was assembled upon the recommendation of Prof. Matti Barbakovich, a pediatrician at Shamir Medical Center, and a board member of the foundation. Consumer goods were donated by Hilda Stone, founder of SASA Setton, and were flown on commercial – not chartered – airline flights.
"We are pleased that the cooperation with the Center for Jewish Impact continues to expand in other directions, in which we take advantage of our position to help thousands of children, inevitably, who find themselves in a war zone and forced to leave their homes without any early warning," declared Doron Jamchi, VP of Marketing and Sales at Maccabi Tel Aviv.
"That's the least we can do for those children in order to put a smile on their faces in these difficult moments."
“Ukrainian children who were suddenly displaced from their homes... we will do our best to help those children who need us most,” said Sonia Gomes de Mesquita, a representative of the Sasa Setton donor family. “I send our prayers to all the residents of Ukraine and hope for their well-being."
Further, three El Al flights will transport over 2.1 tons of goods. El Al customers who have volunteered as “aid ambassadors” will receive the products at the boarding gate. Volunteers will then be asked to deliver the packages to a representative of the SASA Setton Foundation waiting for them at the airport.
"Since the beginning of the tensions in Ukraine, El Al has donated dozens of rescue flights to bring passengers back to Israel,” said El Al vice president Shlomi Am Shalom. "El Al will do everything in its power to assist all Jews and Israelis in need of assistance. We thank El Al customers who have agreed to take part in this important humanitarian mission and to serve as ambassadors in the air."