Angus locals making a difference in Ukraine
Jacob Wright is already in Ukraine and will soon be joined my more Angus residents
An Angus resident is dedicating his time to providing aid to Ukrainians.
Jacob Wright, from Arbroath, is currently based in Eastern Ukraine and has spent 6 months in the country over three spells.
His current trip began back in February. The 25-year-old is a coordinator and driver for the charity Highway 2 Help.
In his role Jacob and his team are donated aid and then must decide who's must suitable to receive the aid and then deliver it to them. He gave us an example of his work: "We were given a generator, quite a large diesel generator, and were just told make sure this is going to be used every single day.
"So, I managed to find a temporary hospital for that. The issue with hospitals here, especially in the Donetsk regions, is that they're targets. They're targeted frequently. So, they're using places that aren't exactly suited to hold and use the power that we need.
"So we took the generator to them with the expectation that it's going to help them power their lights etcetera. But, they actually contacted me again saying that this generator is big enough that we are now opening a second operating theatre, so we're doubling our capacity now and it's going to save lives.
"So there's the big things and the small things. From getting a girl her first bike, to delivering generators that are actually saving lives."
On what it's like living in Ukraine, he said: "I've adjusted to the sense of it being a warzone, I've adjusted to it all quite quickly. Quicker than I had anticipated. It's hard not to when you see how resilient and hard working the Ukrainians are.
"Every person you meet it's all the same idea. We will not give up. We will have victory at aby cost."
He added: "I've seen some horrible, horrible sights. I've seen boys three-four years younger than me in body bags but I've seen young girls smiling ear to ear when you give them something as simple as a small teddy bear. So you've seen the beautiful side and you've seen the evil side."
On what made him drop everything and head out to Ukraine, Jacob said: "So, I had a bot more of a personal connection with Ukraine because one month before the war I came here on holiday. It was the first holiday I'd ever been on outside of my family circle of going to Portugal.
"I was walking around the city and I just fell in love with the way the Ukrainian people were. We made friends here and watching them have to flee and watching them have to spend nights in shelters underground, it was just like every volunteer I've met. There was just this feeling inside that we can do something, we just had to figure out what and how.
"So I just filled up my van and me and my friend Brogan drove over together. What was supposed to be three weeks then turned into three months."
Jacob will soon be met by some familiar faces in Ukraine. His brother, Connor Wright and his friend Alex Watson.
The pair are set to travel to Ukraine on the 27th March.
Before heading to Ukraine, Alex will undertake a number of fundraising events to add more funds to the aid effort.
Included in the efforts is a 24 hour litter pick between Montrose, Arbroath and Brechin which will take place on the 19th March. On the litter pick, Alex said: "I think it's about a 45 mile trip all round and I won't stop. Not only will I be fundraising for a noble cause but I'll be cleaning up my community and getting the message out there.
"While I'm out there I'll be canvasing and spreading the word of what Highway 2 Help are doing out there in the conflict zone."