Six Weeks in Ukraine: Professor Vernon Palmer on Volunteering During Wartime
This summer, Professor Vernon Palmer traded the comforts of home for Western Ukraine, joining a group of international volunteers working to support Ukrainians amid the ongoing war.
Palmer volunteered with FinEst Volunteers, a Finnish organization that provides humanitarian aid in Ukraine and supports Ukrainian refugees in Finland. After discovering the organization online and talking with its director, Palmer packed his bags and traveled to the small village of Duplyska. There, he lived with seven other volunteers from around the world, sharing one bathroom and sleeping in bunk beds.
His days were divided between working with children and preparing supplies for the Ukrainian military. In the mornings, the volunteers helped with a summer school program for children, playing games like Uno, participating in recreational activities and helping them learn English.
The afternoons brought a different type of work. Palmer and the other volunteers made camouflage netting designed to help protect troops from drones, a process painstakingly done by hand. They also shoveled dirt for shelters, cooked and packaged energy bars for the troops at the front, and assembled hygiene kits containing items like toothpaste and instant coffee.
For Palmer, there was no legal or work-related reason for the trip to Ukraine. His motivations were more fundamental.
“In this situation, it is David vs. Goliath,” he said. “This is the country fighting hardest daily for democracy.”
Over the six weeks, Palmer saw the effects of war firsthand, but he also saw a country determined. He noticed billboards throughout the country bearing a simple message: “We are unbreakable.”