We are Franky and Coen

What started as a French fry cart on the Polish border has grown into a mission in a war zone. We sometimes hand out as many as 2,000 servings of French fries in a single day, but that’s not nearly all we do. We evacuate people from the front lines, take in refugees at our own Holland House, and deliver relief supplies, food packages, and medical supplies to places where almost no one else goes.

 

We also organize children’s vacations for (orphaned) children from war zones in safe locations and support several animal shelters, including one with more than 300 dogs. In addition, we document as much as possible on video so that people here can see what war truly means. These images can also help later in proving war crimes.

 

From August 26 to September 14, we’ll be back in Ukraine to provide aid in the frontline area

 

The loss of our very best friends

On October 23, our best friends and constant travel companions, Alyona Gramova and Yevhen (Zhenya) Karmazin, were killed in a Russian drone attack. Our driver, Sascha, was seriously injured in the same attack. We visited him several times in the hospital. He is alive, but his recovery will take a long time.

 

Alyona and Zhenya meant the world to us and to our work. A large portion of our video footage was shot by them. They were supposed to come visit us in the Netherlands for two weeks together in December. We miss them every day, but we’re carrying on in their name.

 

​Children’s Vacations

Children’s Vacations On August 28, another children’s vacation organized by us for orphans and other young victims of war will begin. Once again, it will be a vacation they’ll never forget.

 

Where We Fried French Fries, and Why It Matters

Giving away French fries may seem like a small thing, but it means much more than just a hot meal. It’s a moment of warmth and humanity for war victims in a cold war.

 

For example, we fried French fries in Kherson, Kramatorsk, Lyman, Mykolayiv, Kyiv, Irpin, Bucha, Borodyanka, Hostomel, Kharkiv, Izium, Dnipro, Pokrovsk, and Zaporizhzhia. Sometimes just behind the front lines, sometimes in the middle of a city that was 80% in ruins. In this way, we’ve already given hundreds of thousands of people a moment when the war faded into the background, if only for a brief instant.

 

Missile Attack

On June 27, 2023, we survived a rocket attack in Kramatorsk together with Alyona and Sacha. We were at the RIA restaurant when a Russian Iskander cruise missile struck. Thirteen people were killed and more than sixty were injured. We escaped with minor injuries. We lost people we knew, including two 14-year-old girls, a 17-year-old girl, and the waitress who had just served us. That day changed us forever and, at the same time, strengthened our conviction: we will continue to help Ukraine. Period.

 

Literally saving lives together with you

Arterial bleeding can be fatal within minutes. A good tourniquet—a device that temporarily constricts blood flow—can literally mean the difference between life and death. During our visits to the front lines, we saw that many soldiers and civilians do not carry a proper tourniquet. Not because they don’t want one, but because reliable tourniquets are often too expensive.

 

That is why we developed the F&C tourniquet. Following extensive independent testing and field trials in Ukraine, we are now personally distributing these tourniquets to soldiers, medical personnel, and civilians in the frontline area.

 

Our ambition is grand: in addition to the first 1,000 F&C tourniquets that have already been produced, we want to have at least 10,000 more tourniquets manufactured. Each tourniquet costs us approximately €6.

 

Will you help ensure that a reliable tourniquet is available when it matters most? Together, we can literally save lives.

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The Holland House, a Safe Haven in a War Zone

In Dnipro, we opened our own shelter: The Holland House. This is a place where people from the most dangerous areas can catch their breath. Our guests come from places where there has often been no heating, electricity, or running water for months. Many were evacuated in our armored vehicles. Without help, many of them literally would not have survived. Together, we’re looking for a safe, permanent place for them to rebuild their lives.

 

Evacuations: Our Most Dangerous Work

The riskiest thing we do is evacuate people from frontline areas. We drive armored vehicles to villages where bombings continue daily—places where drones make conditions particularly dangerous and where people have sometimes been trapped in basements for months. They are often unable to flee on their own. Together with police and military personnel, we try to bring them to safety.

 

On every trip, we carry out several evacuations, but we also work alongside Ukrainian heroes who, at the risk of their own lives, rescue people from their perilous situations.

 

We carry out evacuations on nearly every trip. In addition, we work alongside Ukrainian heroes who, at the risk of their own lives, rescue people from their perilous situations.

 

​What else we do

We deliver food packages to families in frontline areas. We help orphanages and support military hospitals where severely wounded soldiers are treated. We delivered medical equipment to an operating room in Kyiv and visited several stabilization posts near the front line, where critically wounded soldiers receive first aid. We will never forget what we saw there.

 

Our aid is wide-ranging, but always humane. And it’s only possible thanks to the incredible support of our donors.

 

TV series: Patatje Hoop, twice a week on RTL4

RTL is once again producing a television series about our work in Ukraine. You’ll see how we fry French fries near the front lines, but the cameraman also tags along during evacuations and visits to The Holland House. The fourth season starts this fall. Until then, you can watch the reruns every Saturday and Sunday or catch up on episodes via PatatjeHoop.nl or Videoland