Direct Relief spends more than $45 million to help Ukraine

Editor’s note: This is the fifth article in a News-Press series on efforts to help Ukraine.

By DAVE MASON NEWS-PRESS MANAGING EDITOR

Direct Relief’s efforts in Ukraine have become the Goletabased nonprofit’s largest project in its 75-year history.

“What we’ve done in a year in Ukraine is more than we’ve done globally in some years,” said Thomas Tighe, Direct Relief’s president and CEO.

“Over the last 12 months, we’ve spent over $45 million,” Mr. Tighe told the News-Press last week, just before the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion. “We didn’t anticipate having or needing to spend that a year ago. But the response has been so positive (from donors). We’ve received contributions from people in 80 countries.”

Direct Relief supplies medications and healthcare equipment and works to meet other healthcare needs in areas hit by disasters around the world, including in the U.S. The nonprofit also helps areas hit by wars such as Ukraine.

Direct Relief started its work in Ukraine after Russia annexed the

For more information or to donate to Direct Relief, see directrelief.org.

UKRAINE: ONE YEAR LATER

nation’s Crimea region in 2014.

Mr. Tighe said Direct Relief’s eight years of experience before Russia started its invasion in 2022 prepared the nonprofit to assist the nation. “That made it much easier to expand what we were doing.”

He said Direct Relief maintains a warehouse in the Netherlands, where it can fill an order in a day or two, then truck it through Europe and ultimately into Ukraine.

“We can receive donations from European healthcare companies, consolidate them in the Netherlands and have a large inventory there for people to order from in Ukraine,” Mr. Tighe said.

He said Direct Relief provides Ukrainians with medications for chronic conditions such as hypertension and insulin for diabetics.

Direct Relief also provides chemotherapy medications, antibiotics, vitamins and more.

Many of the supplies come from Direct Relief’s warehouse in Goleta, where FedX picks them up in its truck and transports them to Los Angeles International Airport for flights to Europe.

“FedX picks up here every

Fire strikes at Andersen’s Pea Soup

Direct Relief supported Project Joint Guardian, an international nonprofit made up of firefighters, with a $50,000 grant to transport first responders to Ukraine and help them purchase needed equipment. The organization also supplied the firefighters with Emergency Medical Backpacks intended for triage care and shipped equipment to the region on their behalf.

day,” Mr. Tighe said. He added that Direct Relief also provides money directly to help with health needs. He cited an example. Ukrainian refugees in Poland are entitled to Polish health insurance programs, but the refugees are required to pay twothirds of the cost, Mr. Tighe said. That’s where Direct Relief stepped in, with a $15 million grant to Poland to cover the refugees’ co-payment.

Another example is Direct Relief’s $50,000 grant to Joint Guardian, an international nonprofit made up of firefighters. The grant helped the nonprofit to transport

TRAFFIC, CRIME AND FIRE BLOTTER

Warren Showgrounds and had to be rescued, Santa Barbara County Fire officials said.

first responders to Ukraine and purchase needed equipment.

Mr. Tighe said Direct Relief also took care of getting mobile field hospitals, provided by the state of California, into Ukraine. “They’re kind of a like M*A*S*H unit.”

The field hospitals were transported on a FedX charter flight to Warsaw, then taken by truck into Ukraine.

As part of Direct Relief’s efforts, Mr. Tighe visited Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, in August.

“It was a time of relative calm, and I was meeting with NGOs (non-governmental organizations) that Direct Relief has been

Please see UKRAINE on A4

BUELLTON — Firefighters responded to a late-night structure fire Sunday night at Pea Soup Andersen’s restaurant, the Santa Barbara County Fire Department said Monday.

Flames were seen by a passerby who called 9-1-1, fire officials said.

SBC firefighters responded around 11:40 p.m. to the restaurant, and they confined the fire to the exterior of the southwest corner roof.

The fire was knocked down by 12:02 a.m. Monday.

The hotel attached to the restaurant was not involved. No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

— Neil Hartstein

Males trapped in storm drain

SANTA BARBARA – Two males, an adult and one minor, who were out “adventuring” Monday, got trapped in a storm drain at the Earl

Laguna Blanca dominates

Chadwick volleyball tournament

The Laguna Blanca boy’s volleyball team won the Chadwick Volleyball Tournament by first sweeping 3-0 in pool play against Chadwick, Mary Star of the Sea and West Torrence.

Then, after beating Culver City in the semi-final playoff match, Laguna Blanca defeated Bishop Montgomery in the finals.

Tyson Deveze was named Tournament MVP, and Kincade Avery was named to the AllTournament team. Deveze recorded 23 kills, 13 digs and 15 aces. Avery also added 17 kills, six digs and five aces.

Other notable stats were Liam Knezevic with 69 assists, Caden Weaver with 20 digs and Thomas Couvillion with 17 kills.

“It was a good day of growth for our young team as we played a lot

Santa Barbara city and county firefighters responded to the 11:27 a.m. incident. City firefighters got there first, realized the two trapped people were the ones who had called 91-1 and used the Jaws-of-Life to spread the metal grate to free the pair, Capt. Scott Safechuck, County Fire public information officer, said.

“They were adventuring, entered the drain from a different location, and ended up at the location with a steel grate and couldn’t get out,” he said.

They were uninjured.

“Luckily the rain subsided so there were low water levels in the drain,” Capt. Safechuck said. He urged people who feel cooped up because of the rain and want to go “adventuring” to be careful around creeks and drains.

He said standing on the side of a creek could be dangerous because of the saturated ground which could give way. He warned about riding down a swollen creek on a floatation device because you could get caught on rocks or trees beneath the water, or get trapped in a storm drain with a steel grate and become unable to get out.

– Neil Hartstein