The accidental activist...

I connected in early March 2022 with a few World Central Kitchen volunteers on the ground in Poland. One colleague had helped set up the kitchen and shortly after another volunteer, Holly my angel on the ground, was not only cooking in the kitchen, she was helping refugees relocate, so I launched a GoFundMe campaign so I could help her fund transportation, accommodations, supplies and other needs as Ukrainians crossed the border. I was hoping for a few hundred dollars. Within a week, the campaign hit $10,000, and the rest is history! 

I arrived in Poland a few months later, in early summer 2022, and partnered with a few other NGOs including World Central Kitchen (cooking for 6 weeks on the border), UAid.Direct, UkrainianChildren.org, KHARPP and subsequently Leleka Foundation, in supplying food, water, clothing, medical supplies, military clothing and supplies, wood-burning stoves to survive the winter and more life-saving items and services.

Over $40,000 has generously been donated since then and distributed directly to Ukrainians with a small portion going to support the dedicated and selfless volunteers that run these organizations, risking their lives every day to deliver food and supplies to people in need. Many of the people, projects and donations area detailed here on the initial campaign's GoFundMe page.
 

We continue to support families we met along the way the past year and the organizations above and a few new ones and we are launching a new campaign that I will tell you more about as it come together so please consider contributing. Every dollar helps. Every dollar saves lives. Every dollar creates a ripple of impact and enough ripples create a wave so please join me in creating another wave of humanitarian aid as I head back to Ukraine in September 2023 for a reconnaissance mission for our next very exciting project. More on
that soon! 

Slava Ukraini! Heroyam Slava!