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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Local efforts to help the people of Ukraine continue.
“People are dying, so we dropped everything and we’re bringing in 11 units,” said Joe Hurston, the founder of the nonprofit Air Mobile Ministries.
Hurston says his organization is stepping up their effects to help the people of Ukraine by providing water purifiers to areas that no longer have access to the basic necessity because of the war. So, Hurston and his group packed up the supplies and flew out of MIA to go help.
“Huge areas are cut off from any sources of water. I’ve heard some of them are drinking water out of radiators – not the car radiators but the heating radiators. People are desperate. When you get thirsty you get desperate,” said Hurston. “Our little machines can take that dirtiest water and make it pretty much make it surgically pure.”
One of the water purifiers from Air Mobile Ministries. (CBS News Miami)
Hurston added each unit can provide about 1,000 people drinking water every day.
Dr. Erin Webb says the effort is necessary.
“When there’s a refugee crisis, opportunistic diseases like cholera breakout due to poor sanitation. So having clean water is literally life giving, just as having dirty water is life taking,” added Dr. Webb.
But clean water is not the only thing Floridians are helping to provide Ukrainians.
Revived Soldiers Ukraine, the nonprofit that recently held a Ukrainian benefit concert locally, is also helping to provide medical supplies.
“Our number one priority is to safe people’s lives,” said Iryna Discipio, the finder of the organization.
For more than six years, Revived Soldiers Ukraine has been helping to provide medical supplies to the Ukrainian army, and in the recent months their efforts have quadrupled.
“Our mission right now, as well as helping military wounded soldiers, is also buying ambulances and cars to evacuate people wounded and just civilians too,” added Discipio.
Ambulances bought by Revived Soldiers Ukraine for volunteers to help people in some of the hardest hit areas. (Source: Revived Soldiers Ukraine)
Discipio says with the help of their partners, 23 recently purchased ambulances are being driven to the Ukrainian border, where volunteers will meet and take the emergency vehicles to where they are needed the most. In addition, drones that can carry up 30 pounds of medical supplies that will be dropped off to those areas. But that’s not all.
“We spent for the past month almost $3 million in direct aid that we bring hand by hand to people in the most needed places in Ukraine,” said Discipio.