A volunteer aid worker from Adelaide has spoken about the heavy toll the three-year war has taken on Ukraine, a country that has become his second home. Source: The Southern Cross.
Maurice O’Connell proudly holds up his Columban calendar, a hallmark of many a Catholic family, and points to the busy schedule of speaking engagements in Adelaide and at Rotary clubs around South Australia. There aren’t too many free “squares”.
The 66-year-old is on a mission to tell as many people as possible about his work as a volunteer with New Dawn, a charity run by Ukrainians out of the Black Sea port of Odesa.
There is a sense of urgency as next month he will return to Ukraine for the fourth time since Russia’s invasion in 2022.
When Mr O’Connell arrived in Odesa three years ago with a view to helping in some way, he found a group of Ukrainians providing food packs and other assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs). Many of the volunteers had themselves been forced to flee their homes.
An initial priority for the former finance and banking professional was to raise funds, using his contacts at Emmaus Catholic parish in Adelaide, to provide a stipend to volunteers so they could support themselves.
Since then, the charity has won the backing of large non-government organisations, including Caritas, and has moved from a school to a permanent base in what was the derelict nuclear safety institute.
The number of food packs distributed daily has risen from 100 to 210 with an online registration process now in place.
“Before we would have more than 60 people lining up outside the hub, which wasn’t ideal for safety reasons,” Mr O’Connell said.
“Just after I returned to Australia last November two missiles landed three stone throws away from our hub; there were bodies on the street by the café that I went to every day, it was so close.”
According to United Nations statistics, from the end of 2024, more than 12,340 civilians have been killed in the war, and more than double that number injured. Military casualties are far greater.
While the Ukrainian people want peace, they want it to be long-lasting.
“Everyone is fearful they will get a peace imposed on them but one which [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will break and there will be a resumption of hostilities in a few years’ time,” he said.
“They are fighting for an independent, free Ukraine.”
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Adelaide man on a mission to help Ukrainians (By Jenny Brinkworth, The Southern Cross)
