Prague, April 5, 2022 – The University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, in cooperation with Czech Technical University in Prague and the Adra and Zásilkovna organizations, are sending a truck with humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The recipient is Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding in Mykolaiv, whose Rector Eugeniy Trushliakov asked the management of both universities for help. The humanitarian transport contains durable food, diapers, and medical and hygienic supplies worth CZK 1,200,000.
“We are surrounded on three sides, but the western route remains open. If you can send us humanitarian aid, we would be very grateful!” A personal letter from the Rector of this university in Ukraine with this request arrived at UCT Prague on March 17, 2022. The management of the university, which had already sent 1 million CZK via the People in Need organization to Ukraine, decided—without hesitation—to release another amount of 1 million CZK from its supplemental activities budget and, in cooperation with its campus neighbour, CTU in Prague, was looking for a way to get humanitarian aid directly to Mykolaiv. The management of the Admiral Makarov University, which is recently operating as a humanitarian centre not only for its employees, students, and their families, but also for other inhabitants of the city of half a million, namely did not ask for financial support, but rather for food and medicine, which are sorely lacking in their heavily-hit city and across Ukraine.
“When Rector Trushliakov contacted us, we did not think about if we should help, but rather whether it was within our power to deliver the required items directly to Ukraine," said UCT Prague’s Rector, Pavel Matějka. “In the end, the logistical issues were solved thanks to Adra’s and Zásilkovna’s involvement, and I thank these organizations from the bottom of my heart on behalf of both of our universities,” added Rector Matějka.
Rector Trushliakov also asked for help in a letter to the Rector of the Czech Technical University in Prague, Vojtěch Petráček. According to Petráček, CTU in Prague did not hesitate: “Ukraine deserves all our support. And our university is providing help to the best of its abilities, whether this means helping Ukrainian refugees here in the Czech Republic or sending it directly to struggling Ukraine. Thus, it was a unanimous decision to buy things for this humanitarian transport.”
The truck carrying humanitarian aid set out from Prague to Ukraine on Tuesday, April 5, 2022. Its destination is the Ukrainian city of , where Adra has storage facilities and where the aid materials will be transferred to a vehicle belonging to the university in Mykolaiv.
The University of Chemistry and Technology Prague (UCT Prague) is a natural center of study and cutting-edge research. One of the largest educational and research institutions in Central Europe, it specializes in technical chemistry, chemical and biochemical technologies, material and chemical engineering, food chemistry, and environmental studies. Remarkably, of the more than 4,000 students at the school, 700 are enrolled in PhD programs on average. Some of the study programs on offer at UCT are unique in the Czech Republic and are key to the future of the entire country. The school collaborates with more than 100 academic institutions, namely within Europe but also in the USA, Canada, Japan, Vietnam, and elsewhere.
Contact: Michal Janovský, spokesman, telephone: +420 733 690 543, e-mail: michal.janovsky@vscht.cz
