"Live and Effective Communication Above All": a conversation with the chief logistician at Caritas Spes Ukraine Mission, Vitaliy Pazdriy
At the beginning of the Ukrainian-Russian war many Caritas members had to master new working directions. Professional economist, Vitaliy Pazdriy, is not an exception. Until February 24, he worked as a project evaluation monitoring manager for Caritas Spes Ukraine. After the Russian invasion to Ukraine, he became a logistics manager at the National Office.
Being a candidate of economic sciences, associate professor of Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman, key organizer of the All-Ukrainian business tournament "Company Strategy" as well as author and co-author of innovative methods of teaching business and entrepreneurship, and now mastering a new role of a logistician? We had a chance to talk it over with Vitaliy.
Logistics of the Mission: How It All Works
"When I joined Caritas, I mainly started working with papers, drafting statutes, holding strategic sessions on economic issues. I played mostly an advisory role within the team. I had no idea back then that I would soon be sitting next to the truck drivers, delivering humanitarian aid to various centers of our organization and parishes of the Roman Catholic Church.
On the fourth day of the war, our team had to solve two important issues: gathering information from the centers and identifying their needs. It was necessary to know to whom and what exactly should be sent. Then I became a contact person and began to communicate with the centers. We decided that humanitarian aid supply should come from Lviv.
During the first week, no one yet understood how to continue working effectively. Our team developed logistics routes, created a network of distribution centers. We fruitfully cooperated with the Auxiliary Bishop of the Lviv Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church - Eduard Kava.
After the war broke off, we sent our first bus to Vinnytsia. Then the goods went in different directions. Thanks to the crucial work of our offices in Warsaw and Lviv, I initially did coordinating work. I served as a connecting link between our centers. First, our manager Olena Kava agreed with Polish partners on the supply of aid to Lviv. Then our logistician Veronika Hanol searched for transport to deliver goods to Ukraine. Lviv team undertook to search for transport in Ukraine, and this all makes sense, because they know when they could accept cargo, they understand the specifics of interaction with drivers," says Vitaliy.
Before the war, Caritas Spes Ukraine's activities included seven diocesan centers, as well as about thirty parish centers throughout Ukraine. Vitaliy began to work actively with the centers in Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi and the network in Transcarpathia, as the Western part of Ukraine received many IDPs.
"We called parishes and bishops in March, actively cooperating with priests in terms of receiving humanitarian aid, because they had never dealt with that before. We were approached by people from Dnipro and other cities, where we later deployed our powerful centers.
Zhytomyr team at first had direct communication with the Polish partners and delivered humanitarian aid to the region. Later on we began to provide them with what they need. In Kyiv, we have long collaborated with Mr. Oleh Ovechko and the
International Charitable Foundation called "Promotion of Medical Development", which he is the head of. With the help of the foundation, the first trucks were sent to the parishes and a humanitarian hub was set up."
Thanks to his economic speciality, Vitaliy already had certain theoretical knowledge of logistics. However, according to him, the most helpful was his direct presence during the transportation of goods:
"Gathering information is also a part of logistics. But it helped me a lot that at the beginning of April I started accompanying drivers, I visited three key centers: Kharkiv, Odesa and Dnipro. In these cities, as well as in Zhytomyr, Kyiv and Vinnytsia, we received a total of six warehouses. The centers have proved their ability to receive and distribute humanitarian aid. In April, the Caritas Spes Ukraine regional center in Kamianets-Podilskyi also joined this line of work.
Effective helpers of our Mission appeared by themselves. My personal discoveries were parishes from Kremenchuk, Kamyanskyi, Pavlohrad, Kryvyi Rih, Nikopol, Starokostiantyniv, Brailov, Chechelnyk.
Unfortunately, there are still villages that can not be reached by anyone. In Chechelnyk, for example, we were the only ones distributing aid throughout the war. This is an urban-type settlement in the Vinnytsia region with no one nearby within 30 km. A lot of displaced people turned out to be there."
More centers - more workflows
For more than three months of the war, Vitaliy has been collecting information from suppliers about goods, accounting and control over the delivery of humanitarian aid to the centers. The logistics manager of Caritas-Spes Ukraine stated that the National Office staff worked 24/7.
"For the first two months, my colleagues and I worked almost around the clock. Sometimes I woke up at 6 a.m. and immediately got down to work, and I fell asleep holding my laptop. Now the work is really under control, but as the number of centers increases, so does the number of logistics processes."
Ongoing motivation of people
According to Vitaliy, in order to deliver one truck of aid, the efforts of about twenty people are needed. These are those who draw up documents, load humanitarian aid, transport it, unload it at the regional centers, then reload it at the new warehouse, take it to the recipients and unload it on the spot.
"With God's help, all people clearly understood the area of their work, and they didn't need to be persuaded. I am very grateful to the Executive Director of Caritas Spes Ukraine, Father Viacheslav Hrynevych SAC, to our team for their trust. This is a tangible professional growth for me. When I see that the Mission has provided over a million social services, I understand that this is the result of the work of a mega-team. I watch volunteers working and learn a lot from them.As for me, such trips are an unconditional live contact, as well as evidence that people are not left alone in hard times. Visits to the centers are a great exchange of experience. I understand the value of all our efforts when I see the eyes of people receiving the support, when I communicate with them and receive their sincere gratitude."
Be diplomatic, flexible and unobtrusive
Vitaliy says he got used to being en route. He has traveled to 42 countries, so logistics is the area where he can be very efficient. His first task during the war for
Caritas Spes Ukraine was to calculate the budget for the maintenance of one bomb shelter. And he drafted it, actually sitting during the air raid in the bomb shelter of a kindergarten. It was there when a list of everything needed from food packages was formed.
"Caritas saved me psychologically. I had to either go to the battlefield, or be very effective in another role, by helping people. I do not count on the media when it comes to realising what is actually happening in Ukraine. I want to see it with my own eyes, to feel what people truly experience. When I hear their stories, I start to become even more active in terms of help and support.
As for me, logistics is primarily effective communication at all levels and live communication with people, and it is necessary to be very diplomatic, flexible and unobtrusive.”
Over the three months of the war, Caritas Spes Ukraine Mission has established agreements with military city administrations, heads of consolidated territorial communities and average Ukrainians from various cities, towns and villages who are actively involved in the service. By the end of May, our logistics routes had already reached the most remote deoccupied villages in the East, expanding the map of humanitarian aid to 22 covered regions with 15,009 settlements.
