Following the successful first mission in August 2024, the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI), supported by our Order, returned to the Kharkiv region in November 2024 to provide urgently needed humanitarian aid. The situation in the city, which has been hit hard by daily attacks, and the entire region remains extremely precarious.
As part of this second Kharkiv mission, 125 additional generators were delivered to supply hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, schools, kindergartens and other important facilities with electricity, 100 laptops and PC systems were handed over so that children can continue to learn in temporary school classes, and a passenger bus to evacuate civilians from the embattled areas of the Kharkiv region.
The cooperation within the mission between SECI, represented by Executive Coordinator Dr. Michael Fazekas, and the Order of St. George, represented by our Grand Master Archduke Karl, accompanied by his wife Christian, and Justitiar Mgr. Michael Heres, was once again essential in bringing aid directly to the people in the Kharkiv region.
Dr. Michael Fazekas, who was significantly involved in the creation of the initiative, emphasised the importance of aid for Ukraine, which has to defend itself against a brutal aggressor. He emphasised that it was not only a duty, but also an honour to provide humanitarian support to the country and its long-suffering population in its defensive struggle.
Our Grand Master took the opportunity to hold important talks on site, among others with Nobel Peace Prize winner Oleksandra Matviichuk from the Centre for Civil Liberties, and used every opportunity to listen to the long-suffering population, representatives of aid organisations etc. and to encourage them.
