From sunny Maspaloma to cold Kyiv. This is the journey former rally driver and ultramarathon fan Paco Molina has made three times in a van. to deliver to the Ukrainian people the humanitarian aid collected by his association, Karuna, using funds from the Cabildo de Gran Canaria.
“This time I brought two thousand kilos of surgical and medical material that we delivered to the army”, Molina told EFE in the bar of his hotel in Kiev, a few hours before embarking on a return trip between the two most remote places in Europe that seems to be no problem for the former pilot.
“It lasts three or four days”, he said about the time he had to complete the trip between the Ukrainian capital and Huelva, where Naviera Armas offered him a free ticket to return with his van to the island of Gran Canaria.
When asked about the difficulty of such a long trip, the former rally driver does not seem to see the distance as a problem, and he highlights the pleasure of driving on highways – “when possible with tolls, because they are safer” – European, especially that of Germany, “where there is no speed limit.”
ARISING FROM THE PANDEMIC
Born in 1960 in the English town of Saint Albans, in a family of Spanish emigrants who returned to Algeciras shortly after, Molina arrived in the islands at the age of 18, where he dedicated himself to the hospitality industry and compete in competitions such as the Gran Canaria Grain Rally Championship.
Molina founded Karuna, a concept from Hinduism and Buddhism that can be translated as “compassion”to help those who lost their jobs in his adopted town, San Bartolomé de Tirajana, where he was also a councillor.
San Bartolomé is located on the island of Gran Canaria. The famous tourist town of Maspalomas is located in their municipal area.
“There’s a lot of tourism and a lot of underground economy, and all the people who lost their jobs and didn’t have a contract were left without income or help,” Molina explained in Kiev’s Podil neighborhood.
Karuna started distributing food and basic products to these people, and now has about 70 volunteers. that, with the help of the town hall and the van in which Molina has already made three trips to Ukraine, they provide services to approximately two thousand people in situations of vulnerability or social exclusion every month.
FROM LA PALM TO THE WAR IN UKRAINE
The Molina Association He also participated in humanitarian work to take care of those affected by the eruption, in September 2021, of the volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma. A few months later, on February 24, the Russian army began a war of mass aggression in Ukraine.
A few weeks later, Molina and one of his collaborators made their first trip in a van to western Ukraine, where they delivered humanitarian aid to a local NGO.
On his second trip, in April 2022, his partners in Ukraine ran out of money, forcing him to seek his life in the Karuna founder. Overcoming language difficulties, Molina was able to make himself understood and deliver cargo to the army.
REFUGEE AND CO-PILOT
To avoid these problems, the former pilot established a direct connection with the Ukrainian armed forces.and this February he completed his third mission, arriving in the same capital accompanied by Rebeka Parshutina, a Ukrainian refugee living in Tenerife who served as his co-pilot and translator.
One of the things that most impressed Molina from his last visit to Ukraine is meet and distribute food rations to the men and women in uniform defending Ukraine in this war. The military environment reminds the founder of Karuna of his time in the military.
He saw the homeless spending the cold Ukrainian winter in the streets and underpasses of Kiev which is why Karuna has so much work in San Bartolomé de Tirajana, where many people from all over Spain have lived without the possibility of renting or buying of house.
“There we have a warm climate throughout the yearMolina said.
“This allows them to sleep on the beach, and because there is a lot of tourism and a lot of restaurants with a lot of food, they also have more access to food than in other places,” the former pilot pointed out about a fact on the island which is understood more than 5,000 kilometers away.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
