Postcards to the Front is a superb initiative by retired Newport resident Peter Ramadge. It involves Peter collecting postcards from people wanting to send messages of support to Ukrainian troops defending their country from Russia’s invasion of their sovereign nation.
The idea started in late 2022 when Mr Ramadge joined a website that allowed him to exchange postcards with random people around the world. He posted on an internal forum and said he wanted to send postcards to people in Ukraine.
In February 2023 Mr Ramadge was contacted by Tamara Levit, one of three founders of Postcards to the Front. Tamara is in Zaporizhia, Ukraine, a city near a nuclear power plant in south-east Ukraine which has come under attack during the conflict. The postcards are sent in bulk to Tamara who then adds to care packages which are hand delivered to the front lines. Tamara used to work for an IT company and run a postcard shop until the war started when she closed down her postcard shop and started donating postcards to shelters, so people could write messages of support to soldiers.
Mr Ramadge is now the group’s official representative in Australia and to date, the group has collected and sent 1,913 postcards to soldiers from people in Ukraine, Poland, Germany and even Brazil. The postcards provide immense psychological benefit to the soldiers who, upon reading the cards, know that they have support from people around the world in their battle against their Russian invaders.
The immense success of Peter’s work is reflected in the fact that, from the project’s humble beginnings in March 2023, he had a mid-May total of 867 postcards for that month. While military hardware ensures critical fighting capability for Ukraine’s troops, the emotional support they receive from simple and inexpensive things like postcards is invaluable in maintaining their morale.
Peter has been working with other volunteers around the country to develop postcard centres in other cities and regions. The more people that get involved and send messages of support to Ukrainian troops the more they know and appreciate how much support they have against their Russian invaders.
Getting involved with the project is a very straightforward process – simply buy a postcard, write your message on the back of it, then post it to Peter in an envelope to either Postcards to the Front PO Box 565 Williamstown Vic 3016 or Postcards to the Front 3 Elgin St Newport Vic 3015.
Peter’s Postcards from the Front website http://postcardstothefront.com.au/ contains details of the process and what to write on the card.
Happy postcard writing!
