Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the European Union has stood ready to help. The EU Civil Protection Mechanism coordinates emergency material assistance to Ukraine. In Belgium, B-FAST organizes logistics. To date, 434 million euros of materials (67,000 tons) have been donated. Heritage now also finds its place.
Civil Protection calls on the heritage sector to provide protective equipment to Ukraine. Can your museum, archives or heritage library deliver materials in stock? Offer them to relevant heritage organizations in the war zone. In this way, your organization contributes to an important mission and prevent further damage to heritage.
What items can you donate?
Specifically, this concerns materials such as bubble wrap, humidifiers or dehumidifiers, wooden transport crates, thermohygrometers, and much more (See the list of requested items).
If you are ready to participate, please fill out the online form.
The Belgian Blue Shield Committee wants to gather responses from the heritage sector and organize an appropriate temporary storage facility in Brussels based on the storage capacity required to collect the goods and prepare them for transport. From this central point, B-FAST provides joint transport to Ukraine via Warsaw The action is also taking place in consultation with the Unesco Emergency Group For Museums In Ukraine.
Thank you very much for your cooperation.
The Belgian Blue Shield Committee and its partners
RICH (Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage), ICOMOS, ICOM, AAFB, FARO…
*See also FARO’s call for the EU Civil Protection initiative.
https://faro.be/blogs/julie-lambrechts/oproep-schenk-beschermmateriaal-aan-oekraine
Photograph : An employee of Khortytsia, a museum island in Zaporizhia, prepares works of art to be taken to a safe place in the west of the country, on August 12, 2022. (MARINA MOYSEYENKO / AFP)