Indigo for Ukraine

Sleeping bags

Army sleeping bags

Winters in Ukraine are cold, especially for soldiers in trenches. That's why we started looking for army sleeping bags. These are modular: each set consists of two sleeping bags that you can combine during the coldest period of the year. Moreover, army sleeping bags are much stronger than standard sleeping bags.

For this campaign we were able to get our hands on a batch of 400 used army sleeping bags from the French army at a very favorable price which allowed us to finance this large batch and provide many Ukrainian forces with a warm sleeping bag.

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Preparation

In France, after tracing the batch of sleeping bags, the seller was contacted and the 400 sleeping bags were checked for any defects. We had anticipated some repairs, but the 400 sleeping bags were all fine!

Transport

Organizing logistics was the biggest challenge: the sleeping bags were stocked in France, in the Calais region. Transportation to Ukraine is difficult: the supply of transporters driving to Ukraine during the war is limited, and the parties offering transportation are busy because there is high demand for transportation of goods to Ukraine. In the end, we Heart4Ukraine from Breskens prepared to pick up the sleeping bags in France and add them to the large convoy they had already scheduled for the first week of December 2024. Indeed, the truck was already fully booked but the sleeping bags went along at the expense of less urgent goods.

Funding

The estimated budget for sleeping bags and transportation totaled €4,800 (sleeping bags) + €1,050 (transportation).

This budget was amply collected thanks to 172 donations: a total of €6,021 was donated. See Sleep Bags for Ukraine.

Invoice sleeping bags: € 4.800
Invoice transportation: € 1.325
Total: €6,125
Collected: €6,021
Deficit: € 104 (€ 82 increase in budget for chemical heaters, € 22 for own account)

Team

Alex Bond

Alex Bond, a volunteer in Ukraine, liaised with intermediaries in France, and with his WarMonitorTeam made sure that all the sleeping bags got to the army brigades.

NAFO Fella indigonl

Petra Blankwaard

I sought help in the Netherlands within my network for logistics and arranged the transportation of the sleeping bags through that channel. Furthermore, I handled the fundraising campaign for financing.

Heart4Ukraine

Heart4Ukraine provides humanitarian aid to Ukraine. They collect goods and provide their own transportation to Ukraine. They delivered the sleeping bags to western Ukraine.

Media

VRT NWS in Belgium devoted a broadcast to the convoy that left for Ukraine in the first week of December 2024. The video shows the truck containing the sleeping bags, and driver Ad.

Convoy with relief supplies leaves for Ukraine

Photos

Video