Alison Vis with her son, Asher (Photo Courtesy Derek Brade)

By Gates Guarin

Medical supplies and trauma equipment needed

Redcliff family sending medical supplies to Ukraine

Apr 12, 2022 | 12:37 PM

REDCLIFF, AB – Raymond and Alison Vis were fortunate enough to adopt their son Asher from Ukraine four years ago.

It was a lengthy process, and they spent 10 weeks in Ukraine before they could bring Asher home to Redcliff. Recently, the doctor of the orphanage where Asher had been living reached out to the Vis family to help with those wounded or in hospital.

“We always knew that there were struggles going on,” Raymond says. “But I think it’s just very real, right? When you get the call that they’re really needing help.”

Medical supplies and trauma equipment to help hospitals care for those wounded or sick are just some of what is desperately needed. Wanting to give back to their son’s birth country, the family has been leaning on their circle for help.

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“We’ve mostly been sourcing friends, acquaintances, through social media and have gained a decent amount of support,” Alison says. “The next step is to go out into the community and find as much as we can. We can take up to 10 suitcases of supplies. We need some help to finance 10 suitcases of supplies.”

The supplies will go to Lutsk, the city Asher was adopted from. Raymond plans to fly with the supplies collected here to Poland on April 29. From there, the supplies will be taken to the border of Ukraine. Alison says they have prepared for the quick turnaround and are still looking for more help.

“Time’s ticking. Most of our supplies we’re ordering online, so we have to be aware of shipping times to get the items to us. We’ve raised $6,000 so far. We’d love to see that end up about $10,000, even as high as $15,000. They can use as much as we can bring.”

Their children also pitched in to help raise money.

“They decided to sell freezies and candy bags, and they did really well. They had some of their teachers come by, some of their neighbourhood friends and they were able to raise $153 to help us.”

The family is thankful Asher does not have to go through what’s happening overseas.

“We feel incredibly lucky that we could bring him home,” Raymond says. “It has been four years, but just to be able to say he’s here and he doesn’t have to go through what all those people are going through right now, it’s really fortunate for him.”

The Vis family is in the process of setting up a GoFundMe for anyone in the community who would like to donate. If you would like more information about how to donate, or would like to know more about Asher’s story, you can visit the family’s Facebook page, Bringing Up Brave.