Canadians Helping Ukrainians

I quit my job in corporate sales to come help facilitate refugee efforts in Europe in whatever way I can. I'm former military, and a current executive board member of the NDP riding association in Kingston, Ontario. I have experience in first aid, operations management, nonprofit work, communications, volunteer coordination, and transportation.

I'm in Poland at the moment, and there's resources and manpower badly needed on the ground. The large orgs don't seem to be operating much in the small border towns, and I'm asking for resources to be able to direct where they'll be most effective.

It might be insane, but someone helped my family in Europe once, and I never thought I'd be in a position to pay that debt forward.

Medical:

In the field hospital in Chelm where I was helping out this week, trains keep coming in. I showed up to deliver pharmacy and first aid supplies donated in Canada, and ended up working through the night shift providing first aid to refugees arriving by train. There's no doctors, no MSF, no Red Cross or UN workers at the train station — just whatever mishmash of volunteers showed up with any level of medical training.

Medical and first aid supplies are needed, as well as expenses and lodging for med team volunteers. On top of that, funding to bring trained medical volunteers from abroad can alleviate the manpower shortage. At the middle and higher end of the fundraising target, I can cover expenses for friends with military medic or paramedic experience who can come to volunteer.

Refugee support:

What people need changes daily. Food seems to be covered at the moment in the places I've so far seen, but nobody had toothbrushes or EU SIM cards for the refugees to be able to stay in touch with friends and family. If another org steps in to take these over, I'd move on to the next gap in what's needed.

Refugee resettlement:

The friend with whom I'm travelling has experience with resettlement effort of North Koreans in Canada, and we're currently setting up connections between organizations in order to quickly facilitate resettlement efforts in Canada in whichever way we can.

Aid to Ukraine:

Ukrainian cities that are still accessible need supplies in advance of coming sieges. I met this morning with people who can get supplies across the border. I'm collecting lists of what's needed most, and reaching out to connections back home to try and source needed supply. Hopfully, the vehicles moving supplies into Ukraine can be filled with people who need to get in the opposite direction.

General expense support:

This part is just "keeping the lights on." On top of the lodging and food expenses involved when dealing with multiple agencies in multiple cities, I'm hoping to make sure I have a home of my own to come back to when there's nothing left for me to do in eastern Europe that's useful enough to merit the costs.

Volunteer request:

Please let me know if you have experience in medical, emergency, administrative, or logistical fields and would be open to volunteering. Translators are badly needed, especially for any combination of Ukrainian, Polish, and English.

Let me know if you can get yourself here to help. Hopefully, there will be funding available to cover part or full costs for volunteers with high-need or specialized skills.

Summary:

I realize how broad this is, and I know that I'm asking strangers for help and trust. Things are changing every day, in terms of the refugee situation, the response of governments, and resources committed by NGOs. It's impossible to predict which initiatives will be covered by larger orgs tomorrow, so I'm hoping for the flexibility to direct resources as I see fit.

I expect that larger orgs will eventually get their operations together to shoulder many of these things. Once my efforts are no longer providing anything substantially useful, I'm going to go home and resume my own personal and professional life. I'm not interested in an extended trip if this gets to the point of being useless voluntourism.

If any raised funds are surplus to what's needed, when all's said and done, then I also need the flexibility to hand off the money to another org (or orgs) helping with refugee efforts either in Europe, Canada, or elsewhere. I am also asking for the flexibility to hand all the money over to a nonprofit during my time in Europe if I find the right org to join with and work directly through.