💙Standing By Mariupol💛
United Ukraine's focus on one of the war's hardest hit cities
This is United Ukraine co-founder Adam with your mid-week update on where your donations have helped the most. Since our last update, we’ve distributed an additional $5,022.24 to community leaders and families inside Ukraine. The war is now almost four months old, and international fatigue is setting in with no imminent end in sight. Recent reports suggest that attrition of attention is the current Russian strategy, they simply believe that they can keep killing longer than the West continues to care. We intend to prove Putin wrong: we’re sticking with Ukraine as long as they need it; and we’re glad to have you with us in that fight.
Much of our recent work in Mariupol was powered by a single generous donation that we want to spotlight specifically because it was so high impact. Last week, Gerald Singleton, managing partner of the California law firm Singleton and Shreiber, LLP, sent United Ukraine $10,000 in one shot: a figure large enough to meaningfully impact almost every family that had contacted us from the now-occupied metropolis in the last two weeks. These are just a couple of the families that Gerry’s donation helped get to safety:
Sergei has a large family with multiple special needs children. In Mariupol, they made ends meet, in part, by maintaining a small farm on their land. They spent multiple generations making a plot of earth an actual home. Sergei wanted to tell us about his family’s history because today he’s constantly comparing pictures of his home from last year to its current ruined state.
Sergei went from stewarding his family’s legacy to having to flee it entirely. With your help, his family is trying to start again in the Odessa region- farther from the front lines.
Sadly, we get these kinds of before and after comparisons frequently. Yulia, also from Mariupol, sent us her last family Christmas photo from before the war; contrasted with an external shot of the same room where they took the photo.
We helped find them new lodging in Poland. After receiving aid, Yulia wrote back “our family thanks you so much. We never believed this was real, and my husband is touched to tears for the first time in his life. God bless all of you!”
Lots of families this week were thrilled to show us photos of who they love the most, along with words of thanks after receiving support they never expected.
These are just a few of our Mariupol stories from the last week. It’s honestly a small slice. We’ve gotten aid to more than three dozen families from only this one city in just the last few days. All of them were in desperate need. All of them lost everything. Many are missing relatives, and we’re still working on getting transport for one currently separated family that needs urgent medical care. Comparatively small amounts of money go a long way to helping these families get through a rough patch.
But large donations like Gerry’s do more for us than just provide money - they lend us credibility. United Ukraine co-founder Nathan is currently applying for UN partnership programs that would allow United Ukraine to allocated block grants to our partners within Ukraine; and nothing inspires confidence that an organization can competently manage a complex task than knowing another group has already given them that same trust. Through today, we’ve distributed more than $200,000 throughout Ukraine since the start of the war. Here’s how you can help keep us going:
Via Debit, Credit, or Paypal: At this link
Via Venmo: @UnitedUkraine (under the business tab)
Our Website: http://www.united-ukraine.org
And we accept checks via mail at:
225 Bright Poppy
Irvine, CA 92618
Of course, it hasn’t been all Mariupol the last few days.
Lyudmila’s family is based out of Nikolaev, but they were scattered throughout the country in the opening days of the war. Her daughter was in the middle of the semester at university in Kharkov and their finances dried up immediately when the family lost work as the country’s economy collapsed. They spent the last three months apart, with no way to reunite. Your donations got them back together.
And, finally, my personal favorite story from the last week. Our partner Anna in Odessa and Nikolaev used some of your donations to source and purchase an ultrasound machine for a maternity hospital that lost almost all of its imaging equipment during bombing.
The doctor apparently actually kissed the delivery guy. Now THAT is an act of love.
As always, these are just representative samples of where your support goes. We never take your support for granted, and we truly feel blessed when we get to help so many families so quickly. You all make this happen, we just try and deliver your support that last mile. No one knows when the war will end, but all of these families and communities know that you haven’t forgotten them.
As always, with love,
Adam