Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
The Easter holidays are coming, a good opportunity to take a break and reflect on how we can be better. But not all Orthodox will have a peaceful holiday: millions of Ukrainians will live Easter in fear, hunger or both.
It's hard especially now, but we choose to see the light too. You are the light, all those who mobilized and donated time, money or what you had at home, to be in solidarity with those fleeing the war. We bow to you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and urge you to continue *.
How we got to giving humanitarian aid
We don't want war. Nobody wanted it. We are not good at humanitarian aid. We helped chaotically at the beginning, transporting about 3,000 people with the help of your donations, whether they were 50 lei or 50 euros - any amount matters. Then we realized that the most useful thing is to do what we know best: to make our organizational infrastructure available and to extend our antennas to connect needs with solutions, quickly.
In early March, we appeared in a CNN report. Shortly afterwards, we met, liked and partnered with CORE RESPONSE, an association in the United States that specializes in crisis response since 2010. Thanks to them, we have been able to contribute to the humanitarian aid they provide on a much larger scale than we can.
We take advantage of the respite given by the Easter holidays to draw our soul and draw a line to the concrete way in which we also contributed. We invite you to join the effort and think about how you can make better the lives of people who found themselves in the middle of a war they did not want, but are living tragically.
What the needs are now
Medicines, hygiene products, basic food or diesel for ambulances are very useful. Maybe you can donate yourselves, or maybe you know companies that would be willing to make some discounts for certain products. In any case, let us know at weare@funkycitizens.org if you think you can help.
What we've done so far, together with CORE
We were in the field, in Odessa, to establish partnerships with the authorities and civil society there, to make sure that the aid reaches where it is most needed, quickly and adapted to the changing needs of the day. We are beginning to think about more sustainable, medium- and long-term aid.
As a result, in a little over a month, we gathered:
- over 32,500 kg of food, at Romexpo and other centers in Bucharest
- over 7,000 non-food products
- over 600 kg of drugs and 4,250 bandages
- over 3,000 shelter-specific items (mattresses, beds, bedding, pillows, sleeping bags, raincoats, refrigerators, washing machines)
- over 4,500 personal care products
- 9 partnerships with NGOs in Romania that provide direct support to those in Ukraine
- 1,500 vouchers worth 312,000 lei.
- 6 trucks with 20 tons of supplies (including medicines) for Odessa, Reni, Mykolaiv and Dnipro
- 20,000 liters of diesel for schools and hospitals
- barrels worth 70,000 liters of water to make up for the bombing of the Mykolaiv water station
Bonus: we have expanded the team with the first Ukrainian employee, Mariya, she will currently help us with translation and interpretation, but we would like her to be with us in the long term, because her studies can help in the fight against misinformation.
We would like to thank all those who helped us with accommodation, transport, any donation, contact, phone, kind words. We would not have succeeded without the extended network of citizen citizens, always concerned and helping. We know that they will continue to be with us, and their generosity makes us go on.
Happy holidays to you all!
