Right now you can help purchase an ambulance for Ukraine, which Helio will drive down to Lviv in April. We are doing this together with the organization Karavanen Ukraina and Patrik Jaldevik. A ferry trip and half a day’s drive away, a full-scale war is ongoing where the need for help is enormous. Karavanen Ukraina is a non-profit organization that about four times a year personally drives vehicles and essential supplies down to Ukraine. Meet Patrik Jaldevik, one of those leading the work in Sweden, who explains how you too can contribute.
When we get the chance to speak with Patrik Jaldevik, he is sitting and planning the next major aid effort — the caravan that will roll down to Ukraine shortly after Christmas. At the same time, operations at his own communications agency NOSY must keep running, continuing to deliver high quality to its clients. So these are busy days. Patrik Jaldevik is a Gothenburg native who ended up settling in Stockholm 25 years ago. A full-scale entrepreneur, a competitive person, a sailor, with more than two decades in marketing, sales and brand strategy in his portfolio. He has built his entire professional life around commercial and strategic matters, but some time ago his commitment also developed in a completely different direction. Straight into a full-scale war. In Europe.
No intermediaries, just action
It all started with a question from a close friend who, together with childhood friends in Finland, had started Karavanen Ukraina. The journalist Magnus Londen had been on site to report on the war and had seen everything up close. Those experiences, which he could not let go of, became the starting point for what is today a non-profit organization. Being concrete is the very core of the entire operation: collecting money, buying what is actually needed, and driving it down to Ukraine themselves. No intermediaries. No vague promises. Just action.
When Patrik Jaldevik was asked to help and personally drive vehicles with supplies down, curiosity was the first – and biggest – driving force. Together with a portion of that competitive instinct, to prove, both to himself and to others, that it can be done. The journey started with a flight from Stockholm to Helsinki, and from there eight cars were driven in a caravan through the Baltics, down toward Poland and into Ukraine.
Once on site, everything changed.
— Everything went from being exciting to feeling like a slap in the face. When I met the people, all those affected, I completely broke down. Only then and there did I realize that this is real. And that it is also incredibly close to us.
The need never ends
Since that first trip, not only has Patrik Jaldevik’s own commitment grown. After both the need in Ukraine and the willingness to help from Sweden increased, a Swedish non-profit association was also started just over a year ago. Today the two organizations work closely together and usually drive vehicles and supplies down to Ukraine together. So far, the two organizations have collected around 28 million SEK and delivered approximately 150–160 vehicles and large amounts of other supplies. In January, the Christmas caravan rolled down, nearly 20 vehicles strong. It mainly involves deliveries of four-wheel-drive vehicles, pickups, and other types of transport vehicles that can be used at the front, for example to evacuate the injured. But the cars are also packed full with, among other things, medical supplies, generators, power equipment, and medical materials. Everything is considered consumables that can run out or disappear at any time.
— What we drive down today may be destroyed tomorrow, especially the vehicles, which can be blown up the very next day. The need never ends. We meet the same people on our trips, see them becoming more and more worn down, and hear about the sons they have lost. And even if peace were to come, the help will be needed for a long time, Patrik says.
Commitment, not fear
The caravans are always carried out quietly and discreetly. Exact times are never communicated in advance; safety is always the focus. The trips usually go to Lviv, where they meet their Ukrainian partners and stay for a couple of nights.
Are you ever afraid?
— No, not really. We are always many people traveling down together, and in Lviv a relatively normal life is actually going on. It is almost unbelievable how the Ukrainians manage it. The fear probably exists mostly among our families back home. I myself have a wife and two grown children who have moved out, and of course they worry.
For Patrik, the commitment has become something deeply personal.
— Much of what I have worked with all my life is commercial and fairly superficial. This I do with my heart. It gives me energy and feels meaningful in a completely different way. We will continue to help on site as long as the Ukrainians themselves continue to fight.
This is how you can help
Karavanen Ukraina’s model is simple; the money that is collected is turned into aid and supplies that are actually needed. Donating money in different ways therefore makes by far the greatest difference.
We will share more about this at upcoming member breakfasts, and there is also an opportunity for one member to join the trip down and deliver the ambulance to Lviv.
Helio will donate 20,000 SEK as a starting contribution. If you would like to ask questions or have suggestions, you are welcome to email our founders directly.
patrik.astrom@helio.se or eric.spongberg@helio.se.
How your company can help contribute:
Organization name: Karavanen till Ukraina – Sverige
Organization number: 802551-0481
Bankgiro: 878-0082 (Mark the payment “Helio”)
