How it works – how donations to BEARR keep humanitarian relief going in Ukraine
Our Information Officer and several trustees recently held a video call with the head of one of our partner organisations in Kharkiv, north-eastern Ukraine. This region has come under renewed and vicious attack in recent months and we were keen to find out how he and his colleagues were coping.
On the day of our call Ivan was in a room without electricity but his power bank was charged. The weather was stiflingly hot – in June and July Ukraine has been in the grip of a heatwave (over 30C at night and into the 40s during the day), and due to the destruction of power generation infrastructure, people are without electricity to run air conditioning, fans or even their fridges. But he was cheerful and positive, and told us how small CSOs like his optimise their fundraising and humanitarian relief work. Ivan heads a civil society organisation (CSO) that was not known to BEARR prior to the full-scale invasion in 2022. It has 18 regular staff and, when necessary, hires additional staff for specific projects. They found out about BEARR through an article in the media and have been regular beneficiaries for two years now. They provide us with regular reports so we already know a lot about their work. Ivan explained the way they work.
In the Kharkiv oblast (region) there is a strong community of about 400 CSOs coordinated in a “humanitarian cluster”. These clusters have been established in each oblast in Ukraine, are often led by UN workers, and bring together local and international relief workers and local administrations. The local CSOs also coordinate among themselves and have a regional coordination centre between their own and a neighbouring oblast established by local activists.
To decide which community to help, they contact the local authorities to find out what assistance has been received, consult about needs, and then they go to the humanitarian cluster to obtain approval for meeting the request. This is to ensure there is a genuine need and to check for duplication. The BEARR Trust was one of the first donors to this particular CSO, and its small grants help them not only to deliver assistance but also to obtain partner funding to cover operating costs – they can go to other donors and say “we have a grant for this project, will you fund our salaries and other costs (petrol etc)?”. So BEARR’s funding allows them to implement the distribution of aid purchased with BEARR’s money. But most of them have ongoing problems raising funds to cover core costs.
The CSO has four current priorities: humanitarian assistance – food, hygiene kits etc (with hygiene products a high priority because of the hot weather and risk of illness); mental health and psychological support; reconstruction of homes and other buildings; and sports events and holidays for children. In May 2023 they organised a boxing competition in a metro station bomb shelter. It was attended by 3000 people in person and many more via live-streaming!
We hope this story encourages you to keep donating! Here is the link to DONATE!
