Help Fund Our Mission to the Ukrainian Border

Hello, our names are (from left to right) Melek, Nikita, Giovanni, Matthijs, Eden, Yamal. We are a group of students based in the international campus of the Hague at Leiden University. We are a student-based volunteer initiative facilitating the transport of aid to Ukraine. With your support, we aim to bring critical aid to the Ukrainian-Polish border, which will then be further transported to Kyiv; a key Ukrainian city resisting Russian aggression. On our journey back, we will oversee the safe transfer of refugees to Germany.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine has held up brave and valiant efforts against their aggressor. Three years later still, they continue this fight; but not without devastating losses. As of this year, the toll has risen to 31,000 civilian casualties, with the deaths of Ukrainian military estimated well above 46,000. Additionally, millions of Ukrainians have been internally displaced or forced to flee abroad; leaving behind their life as they knew it, and often parting with loved ones in the process. As students seeing this situation unfold across Europe, we can not stand by without taking action. Especially when considering that, according to the UNHCR, only 40% of official aid convoys to Ukraine meet frontline communities. Here, volunteers–both in and outside Ukraine–are crucial to filling the gaps of aid to besieged areas.

To follow our journey you can follow us on Instagram at @studentsforukraine . Alongside our journey, you will also find more information about collaborating parties helping us.

For more information on Keep Them Warm, you can visit their website at https://www.keepthemwarmukraine.com/ , and visit their Instagram at @keepthemwarm . For more information on Stichting de Leeuw Kyiv, visit their site at https://deleeuwkyiv.nl/.

For more information on other NGO’s helping our journey you can find Heavens Shield’s website at https://heavensshield.com/, and more information about Kids Save and their mission in Ukraine at https://www.kidsave.org/ukraine/.

Our Plan

With your help, we will take an all-around 5 day trip to the Przescie - Krakovets border of Ukraine and Poland, and back. We will do so between the 23rd of June to the 28th, of this year. To do so, we will need two vans that are able to hold at least 9 people. With Matthijs, Nikita, Melek and Giovanni alternating behind the wheel, Eden and Yamal will document the entire journey, sharing our experience to, from and at the border with all our supporters. On our drive over, we will drive over the span of two days with boxes full of crucial aid to Kyiv. This includes–but is by no means limited to–energy power generating tools (such as power banks and small solar panels), medicine, canned goods and hygiene products. This aid will be provided by Keep Them Warm, but is also open to any outside aid. Keep Them Warm will also help with the facilitation of contact with refugees who will be brought back from the border. Once we arrive at the border, and deliver this aid to Heavens Shield and Kids Save, they will then transport it to Stichting de Leeuw an organization, based in Kyiv. These organizations are aware of our presence, and will ensure that all aid is brought to Stichting de Leeuw, in Kyiv. On our journey back, we will take back six refugees per bus, and will see to it that they are brought to Berlin; a city which has many resources available to refugees in need. We will ensure contact with the refugees we are able to bring through Keep Them Warm, who oversees and maintains contact with individuals who are need of asylum. Once we have arrived in these cities, we will bring them to the appropriate points of asylum, and have the adequate resources and information needed to ensure a secure beginning of their lives in Germany.

What we need your help with

In order to make this journey possible, we must rely on outside help to fund this journey. While we will receive a great deal of aid supply from Keep Them Warm (who coordinates aid with the aforementioned organizations that are present at the border, we must still manage to facilitate the trip to the border (and back) ourselves. The first and most crucial step to doing so is ensuring that we have the means of transportation doing so. While we will cover our own personal costs of food and overnight stays, we will need €1700,- per van (including petrol costs and overnight stays), amounting to a total of €3400,-.

While we need €3400,- to secure our transportation to the Przescie - Krakovets border, anything that we earn beyond this sum will be used to scale up our operations. Thus, the following outline shows what we will be able to do depending on the totality of your donations:

• With €3400,- we will be able to cover the rental costs of 2 vans (including the costs of petrol), which are able to hold 9 people each. This means we will be able to bring at least 6 people in need to safety in Germany.

• With €5100,- we will be able to cover the costs of 3 vans, and take back at least 6 additional people in need of asylum to Germany.

• With €6000,- (or above) we will be able to allocate at least €900,- to additional aid, which will be brought to Kyiv through our aforementioned partners. This will cover the costs of:

o A solar-powered energy generator of at least 1800 Watts, the costs of which range from €750,- to €1300,-

o Any extra canned goods, hygiene supplies, and canned goods that we can add on top of the aid already provided by Keep Them Warm .

We are immensely grateful for any donations that can help us make this journey possible, and for the small difference we can make in aiding Ukraine as it fights for its survival.

Note: Keep Them Warm is a recognized charity and aid organization that is recognized by the Dutch chamber of commerce (the KVK), and with ANBI status. As students working alongside them, we will maintain full financial transparency over how all costs of your charitable donations are allocated. We will do this both through updates that we leave on this page, as well as through our own social media channels, where we will post receipts and invoices of the goods and services purchased through your donations.

To follow our journey you can follow us on Instagram at @studentsforukraine