Last weekend, a fundraising event “Stand with Ukraine: Warmth & Solidarity Concert”was held in Boston, uniting musicians, artists, medical professionals, and volunteers to assist the freezing residents of Ukraine who are enduring daily Russian attacks on critical infrastructure.
The event raised over $15,000, and all proceeds have been sent through the trusted humanitarian nonprofit Ukraine Rescue Fund (“URF”) directly to Kyiv to buy and distribute warm supplies to those in need.
Thanks to these donations, URF’s volunteers have been working on the ground in Ukraine to bring emergency warmth and energy relief in three different ways:
- Polina Vinnik - the director of the URF branch in Kyiv (NPO My Peremozhemo Razom) has personally delivered power banks, blankets, sleeping bags and hand- and toe-warmers to 75 families in Kyiv;
- A famed Ukrainian author, Ruslan Gorovyi, has personally delivered 15 truckloads of firewood to elderly residents living in the countryside and distributed warm clothes, power banks and personal hygiene items to an additional 23 families;
- A team of volunteers from a Swedish nonprofit - Operation Change collected locally and delivered to Ukraine a truck-full of donated humanitarian supplies, totalling over 28,600 pounds, which included more than 11,000 pounds of blankets, duvets, and winter clothing. From their distribution point in Dnipro, they’ve dispatched individual aid items to recipients across Ukraine, based on their specific, urgent needs.
The combined extensive, swift, and targeted emergency relief was made possible by close collaboration of this diverse, but like-minded group of volunteers all focused on delivering urgent human-centered aid directly to those who need it most.
The URF founders Serhiy and Alina Lubensky met Ruslan Gorovyi during his book tour in the US, where he presented his film Мoshchun - the Diary of Liudmyla Oleksandrivna chronicling the experience of an elderly woman under Russian occupation at the beginning of the full-scale invasion and have committed to help in his ongoing humanitarian work.
"Thus, through our collective efforts, … households in [a number of] regions [across Ukraine] received warmth — in other words, firewood. All these people could have had a significantly better life if it weren't for the savage neighbor attacking us," wrote Ruslan Gorovyi on his Facebook.
Volunteers from the Swedish nonprofit 'Operation Change' loaded a truck with aid donated in-kind in Sweden and delivered it to Dnipro, Ukraine. URF has shared in the cost of the operation and is now directing the delivery blankets, duvets, and winter clothing to Kyiv. By leveraging in-kind donations, the two nonprofits were able to amplify the impact 11-fold.
Overall, through these collective efforts, URF has successfully delivered at least several hundred thousand dollars' worth of aid, which makes a significant impact in Ukraine.
Author: Dmitry Smelansky, Boston
