Brother’s Brother Foundation sending more donated supplies over to Ukraine

PITTSBURGH — Inside the Brother’s Brother Foundation on the Northside, pallets are piled high.

“Things like baby food, diapers, toothbrushes, toothpaste,” said Ozzy Samad, who’s the president of Brother’s Brother Foundation.

These necessities are heading overseas to the Poland-Ukraine border.

“The need is so great because of the number of people who have been displaced because of what’s going on. There are over 3 million refugees who have been driven out and 10 million internally,” Samad said.

The task of getting these supplies to those people is not easy. This is the second shipment from Pittsburgh — the last one went from the Steel City to New York to Paris to Warsaw before it ever made it into people’s hands.

“It’s on our shoulders. The people who donate the supplies and equipment to us and the members of the city of Pittsburgh who have opened their hearts and wallet to help with these shipments,” Samad said.

These pallets are from Giant Eagle. The second donation will come from medical companies Highmark and Allegheny Health Network.

“They are dealing with a tremendous amount of causalities that they have to help people and operate and do ICU and emergency care on a daily basis,” said Dr. Alexander Kirichenko with AHN.

Dr. Kirichenko is a native of Ukraine. He told Channel 11 that his fellow doctors, nurses and residents are working around the clock and need more supplies to keep up with the demand for medical care.

“It took me but one hour to apply to our leadership at Allegheny Health Network for help and get an X-ray machine. In one hour it was available,” Kirichenko said.

The X-ray machine plus pallets of medicine and first-aid kits will be flown out too.

“You can’t put a value on the machine. It’s priceless when it comes to an emergency situation and you save lives and prevent hospital morality by doing quality surgery and quality intensive care,” Kirichenko said.

The shipments aren’t the end of Brother’s Brother Foundation relief efforts. There will be a “Stand with Ukraine” concert with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to raise funds for BBF’s relief efforts. The concert will take place on Thursday, April 21 at 7 p.m. at the Campbell Memorial Chapel on the Chatham University campus.

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