direct help to Ukraine - $

[gardenmom5]

This just came over my feed, and I thought it was very clever.  It can get money directly into the hands of ordinary Ukrainians.

[desertflower]

oh that's a great idea!  Thanks for passing it along.

[Insertcreativenamehere]

I saw this, too, and am going to do it! 

[Insertcreativenamehere]

ETA: I booked a lovely apartment in Kyiv for tomorrow night. I messaged the host, a private individual, what I was doing and they already responded. They were so grateful and surprised. It feels good to help someone actually in Ukraine when I feel so helpless about the situation as a whole. 

[Faith-manor]

4 minutes ago, Insertcreativenamehere said:

ETA: I booked a lovely apartment in Kyiv for tomorrow night. I messaged the host, a private individual, what I was doing and they already responded. They were so grateful and surprised. It feels good to help someone actually in Ukraine when I feel so helpless about the situation as a whole. 

Awesome! I would do it myself if we hadn't just directed money to a couple of NGO's working with refugees. Maybe after Mark's next paycheck. I want to keep helping.

[MercyA]

What a great idea! I love it!

If anyone would also like to support a pro-peace, pro-refugee Christian relief response in Ukraine, I highly recommend Mennonite Central Committee.

[lmrich]

I was wondering if we could  book hotel rooms for refuges...  

[BusyMom5]

Awesome idea!  I have friends with family there, I am sending money through them to their family in Ukraine.  Their family are posting on FB what it's buying and who it's helping.  I like it so much better than donating to a general fund, bc I can see it go directly into food, diapers,  and medicine for regular people.

[thewellerman]

I love this! I just looked around, and I couldn't find anything to book before the middle of next week.  Since I would like to help now, I was thinking that maybe ordering food could work, too?  What do you think?

 

ETA I just realized that airbnb exchanges the currency, which probably can't happen at a random store.  

Edited March 4, 2022 by thewellerman

[Faith-manor]

This group has a high charity navigator rating, and when they say 100% goes, they mean it because the organization is funded by UMC churches in the US as part of their global organization. Every church pays "apportionments" which goes to the administration of the denomination including their relief organization. So no portion of donations from individuals is taken for administrative expenses. 

https://umcmission.org/umcor/how-to-assist-the-ukrainian-people/

There are several UMC's in Ukraine itself, and supplies are getting funneled to them across the border, and also to refugees in border countries. So this might be one option for donating, among many others.

We also did a big donation to DwB because they are moving medical personnel to the region and will at least be working with refugees, but I suspect some personnel will cross the border and work within Ukraine.

[gardenmom5]

One person said they book, then cancel WITHOUT collecting a refund.  Then it is open for rebooking and the host keeps the money.   

 

Even outside the cities - so many cities are being bombed, and people are trying to escape.

[Lady Marmalade]

I heard on the radio this afternoon that AirBNB is not charging people in the Ukraine the usual charges for the bookings in an effort to help further. 

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/mar/03/ukraine-airbnbs-booked-in-effort-to-get-money-to-residents-pay-not-stay

[maize]

My husband's cousin (who used to live in Ukraine) has a friend who is actively shuttling women and children from Kyiv to the border. She is collecting gas money for him. This is someone the cousin knows personally and is in direct contact with; if anyone would like to contribute for gas send me a PM and I can share Venmo/PayPal info. The friend's name is Aleksey.

[Faith-manor]

33 minutes ago, maize said:

My husband's cousin (who used to live in Ukraine) has a friend who is actively shuttling women and children from Kyiv to the border. She is collecting gas money for him. This is someone the cousin knows personally and is in direct contact with; if anyone would like to contribute for gas send me a PM and I can share Venmo/PayPal info. The friend's name is Aleksey.

PM me. I can do Paypal.

[gardenmom5]

UPDATE:

Westerners book up thousands of Airbnbs in Ukraine to support locals | Daily Mail Online

so far, over 1 1/2 million pounds has been raised with this.

[gardenmom5]

It has also been suggested we can purchase downloads from Ukrainians from Etsy or Ravelry.  (Ravelry has added a new filter for country of origin.)

I bought a bunch of crochet downloads I will probably never make.

[thewellerman]

11 hours ago, gardenmom5 said:

It has also been suggested we can purchase downloads from Ukrainians from Etsy or Ravelry.  (Ravelry has added a new filter for country of origin.)

I bought a bunch of crochet downloads I will probably never make.

Thank you for sharing this. I just bought some, too.  

[MercyA]

21 hours ago, gardenmom5 said:

It has also been suggested we can purchase downloads from Ukrainians from Etsy or Ravelry.  (Ravelry has added a new filter for country of origin.)

I bought a bunch of crochet downloads I will probably never make.

Yes. Just found this established artist on Etsy and she and her daughter are selling digital art. They've left Kyiv and are now refugees in Lviv. I am loving the little girls' cat drawings.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/JuliaDattaPaint

[Farrar]

Since this keeps churning to the top, let me just say that I find it to be a very concerning trend right now. Guys, World Central Kitchen, CARE, and countless other organizations are setting up major infrastructure to help the refugees. That takes a lot of money and it's going to help a lot of different people and get allocated by experts. Individuals who own Airbnbs are a tiny number of people. Some of them likely own multiple properties. Some of them may not even be Ukrainian. Some of the money may not be easy for them to access given the chaos. Some of them may be gone from Ukraine and totally fine now, staying with relatives abroad. 

I'm just putting out a plea to consider giving to large scale disaster charitable organizations instead. It feels nice to think you're giving to an individual and I'm sure some folks have been helped by this. But at this point, please, give to the people who are building shelters, feeding people, healing people, clothing people, and gearing up to do things like place people in longer term housing and education and so forth. 

https://www.today.com/news/news/5-verified-charities-working-help-ukrainians-invasion-rcna17590

If you'd like an organization that's a little smaller and feels more personal, NuDay is an organization run by an amazing homeschool mom, so that's a connection you can feel. They raise money and send supplies to Syria to help refugees all the time, but have geared up to send a large container of supplies to support Ukrainians this week:

https://www.nudaysyria.org/

[Corbster98]

On 3/4/2022 at 6:35 PM, maize said:

My husband's cousin (who used to live in Ukraine) has a friend who is actively shuttling women and children from Kyiv to the border. She is collecting gas money for him. This is someone the cousin knows personally and is in direct contact with; if anyone would like to contribute for gas send me a PM and I can share Venmo/PayPal info. The friend's name is Aleksey.

I tried to PM you but it says you are not receving messages. Please PM me info.

Edited March 7, 2022 by allySW

[maize]

19 minutes ago, corbster98 said:

I tried to PM you but it says you are nor receving messages. Please PM me info.

Message sent!

I had to clear some space in my inbox, I've been on the forum for many years and the message storage space is never sufficient for the messages I want to keep🙂

[Dianthus]

2 hours ago, Farrar said:

 Individuals who own Airbnbs are a tiny number of people. Some of them likely own multiple properties. Some of them may not even be Ukrainian. Some of the money may not be easy for them to access given the chaos. Some of them may be gone from Ukraine and totally fine now, staying with relatives abroad. 

I'm just putting out a plea to consider giving to large scale disaster charitable organizations instead. It feels nice to think you're giving to an individual and I'm sure some folks have been helped by this. But at this point, please, give to the people who are building shelters, feeding people, healing people, clothing people, and gearing up to do things like place people in longer term housing and education and so forth

Yes, agree with this. I find the outpouring of love amazing, but my first thought was what if these are Russian owned properties?  Anyway, it's hard for me to give when I question where it will go.

[Houston Turner]

On 3/4/2022 at 11:05 PM, gardenmom5 said:

This just came over my feed, and I thought it was very clever.  It can get money directly into the hands of ordinary Ukrainians.

This is an incredible idea, the people of Ukraine need our help.

[gardenmom5]

10 hours ago, Spirea said:

Yes, agree with this. I find the outpouring of love amazing, but my first thought was what if these are Russian owned properties?  Anyway, it's hard for me to give when I question where it will go.

the suggestions have been to make sure it is locally owned by private owner, and not a bigger company that owns multiple properties.

[MEmama]

13 hours ago, Farrar said:

Since this keeps churning to the top, let me just say that I find it to be a very concerning trend right now. Guys, World Central Kitchen, CARE, and countless other organizations are setting up major infrastructure to help the refugees. That takes a lot of money and it's going to help a lot of different people and get allocated by experts. Individuals who own Airbnbs are a tiny number of people. Some of them likely own multiple properties. Some of them may not even be Ukrainian. Some of the money may not be easy for them to access given the chaos. Some of them may be gone from Ukraine and totally fine now, staying with relatives abroad. 

I'm just putting out a plea to consider giving to large scale disaster charitable organizations instead. It feels nice to think you're giving to an individual and I'm sure some folks have been helped by this. But at this point, please, give to the people who are building shelters, feeding people, healing people, clothing people, and gearing up to do things like place people in longer term housing and education and so forth. 

https://www.today.com/news/news/5-verified-charities-working-help-ukrainians-invasion-rcna17590

If you'd like an organization that's a little smaller and feels more personal, NuDay is an organization run by an amazing homeschool mom, so that's a connection you can feel. They raise money and send supplies to Syria to help refugees all the time, but have geared up to send a large container of supplies to support Ukrainians this week:

https://www.nudaysyria.org/

I agree. We have been supporting World Central Kitchen. Their work is nothing short of miraculous.

I feel like in the first few days supporting families through AirB&B or Etsy were creative ideas, but now the situation is ripe for logistical difficulties in accessing money as well as scams. It feels good to believe we can positively affect a real person on the other side of the Internets, but in reality we don’t actually know the situation. There are plenty of established humanitarian aid organizations that know exactly how to maximize contributions to reach the most people, even if we don’t get a cute message of thanks in return. 

[Dianthus]

1 hour ago, gardenmom5 said:

the suggestions have been to make sure it is locally owned by private owner, and not a bigger company that owns multiple properties.

Yes, but you don't know if those people have left Ukraine or are dead, etc. It's better to donate to a charity organization helping those that are there. However, I'd also be careful with that as I'd hate to donate to one who uses half the donations for bureaucratic fees. 

I plan to download a Ukrainian watercolor from etsy though. I found a lovely artist and I think it is a great reminder to have to focus on prayer for Ukrainians.