'I hope they're proud': B.C. woman leaves family behind to volunteer in Ukraine

We are loaded up with 4500 liters of water today. It’s not the sort of delivery she ever thought she’d make. April Huggett drove Wednesday to a town barely 10 kilometers from the front line, just over the hill there. I was fully Russian occupied territory. The mission on this day was to deliver drinking water to civilians, people who live with the fighting every day. The trick, Huggett says, is ignoring the fear and concentrating on the work. Eventually you just realize that if the rocket is made for you, it will find you. Good morning, Good evening. I review our I’m with the 93rd Brigade, and this is the sort of thing Huggett has been doing in Ukraine since arriving in December of 2022. She makes videos explaining exactly what people need and with the donations buys them all. This stuff is incredible. Thank you so, so much for doing this. Now the delivery is the dangerous part, but it’s the fundraising that’s the bigger challenge. She’s only been home for 20 days in the last 17 months and it’s been hard convincing Canadians she’s doing what she says she’s doing. The problem is I’m here, so it’s really hard. I’ve tried to get on the phone and call Canadian churches and call people back home and say even the Legion, hey. I’m out here, I’m Canadian, and they’re like, who’s this lady on the phone? And they don’t know if it’s a scam or not. In the early days after the Russian invasion, Huggett says she was deeply affected watching what was happening. But it was after the attack on the city of Bucha in March of 2022 that pushed her to act. How can we let this happen? We, you know, especially in Canada, we always say, you know, lest we forget, I felt like we were forgetting. Huggett started in Canada with fundraisers and collections, but decided she should be on the ground to help. Her family fought it. It meant leaving her son and two daughters at home. They are amazing. I hope that they’re proud of me one day. They say that they are, but I hope that when they’re older, they truly understand what what we did here. Huggett hoped to be home in Canada later this month. The problem is war, and helping the people in it keeps getting in the way. Mike Armstrong, Global News, Montreal.