Help Ukrainian women and children catch a breath

TLDR; I am booking and paying for long-term (up to a month) accommodations for women and children fleeing from the war in Ukraine once they cross the border to the neighboring countries of Central Europe. This fund provides families with a place to sleep before they can even begin navigating the overwhelming and confusing maze of options available to them on the ground on what to do next.
Update: every $50 provides a full day and night of comfortable shelter to help a family catch a breath from the horrors they have been subjected to.

Full story: 
My name is Ivan, and I was born in Kyiv, Ukraine. I have never lost touch with my family, friends, and the country I am from.
I came to the United States in 2000, and I am blessed to be a US citizen now. My grandma, mom, sister-in-law, childhood friends, and everyone I know is either still in Ukraine (or what’s left of it) or making their way out to the neighboring counties. 

When the invasion happened, my family in Ukraine, like almost everyone in the world, was caught off guard. My pregnant sister-in-law and 3-year-old niece luckily managed to escape to Hungary, most people are not so lucky. My 90-year-old grandma is too old to move, so she is sheltering in the middle of Kyiv with my 70-year-old mother and her disabled husband. 
This is my niece in a refugee shelter:


Why and How I am helping and so can you
As you might know, only women and children are allowed to leave Ukraine, while most men 16-60 stay and fight for their homeland. This means women and vulnerable children are left to fend for themselves either in shelters in Ukraine or strangers’ homes in a completely different country. 

I call my grandma and mom many times a day to check on them, coordinate food and supplies to be sent to their apartment thanks to the amazing people of Kyiv who are helping each other, or simply to comfort them. My mom cries often and my grandma, who lived through World War 2, regrets she is still around.

I am using my personal money to fund multi-week accommodations for the people I know need help, to give them a place to stay, catch their breath, time to adjust to whatever degree possible, while taking the time to figure out what to do next. 

We have no idea how long they will be homeless, days, weeks, months, quarters, years?

The idea to ask for help from the community came to me while working on accommodating families of women and children of my personal friends and relatives - people I know and grew up with - who are crossing the border now into neighboring countries of Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia,  as the world watches the continuing devastation of my birthplace by the Russian regime in realtime.

I am in the process of booking long-term accommodations directly for the people I know using Airbnb, Booking, Tripadvisor, and other services.

Difficult for Refugees to Navigate Humanitarian Help.
Imagine having spent multiple nights in bomb shelters, waiting in lines at the railway, waiting in more lines, and finally crossing into a safe place but finding yourself alone, maybe you’re pregnant, and then explaining to your small children why you’re no longer home. This is the reality for everyone who is trying to flee this horrific, unnecessary war.
Now, imagine having to figure out how to receive the generous offerings of global humanitarian aid that’s come pouring in. Easy right? No, the reality is chaos. It is mentally exhausting. It feels hopeless. Uncertain.

They just want food and a safe place to sleep. However, it is impossible to navigate the mechanisms through which help is available to the people on the ground in real-time, or find information on how to use these services right after they crossed the border. 

Try for yourself by going to https://www.airbnb.org/help-ukraine  and figuring out what to do if you are a woman with several small kids looking for a place to stay. While these organizations are wonderful for offering charity,  assistance is helpful but not timely enough in the face of real numbers in the MILLIONS. 

Wars are always awful. This is an unprecedented war, and I believe unprecedented means are to be taken to help people who are experiencing this reality right now. That is what I do and I would love you to join me.

The process is overwhelming for people that spent multiple nights in bomb shelters, have to contend with explaining to their small children what is going on, who are fleeing while pregnant, who lost everything and left everything behind, and just have been separated from the sole providers of their means of existence - their fathers.

 

This post has nothing to do with politics, and believe me, I have very strong feelings about what is going on, why, where it is going, how it should end, and the price to be paid by those who are causing what is happening to Ukraine and its people.

Below is a photo of the 11-year-old daughter of one of my closest friends. She was happy at the time the photo was taken, now she does not want to talk, eat, go out while staying at the overflowing refugee shelter in Poland after saying goodbye to her father whom she knows she might never see again. And many families who have been separated probably won't.

I sincerely thank and am eternally grateful to the people of Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and all over the world for their assistance.

 

I reached out to charitable organizations for support and coordination with getting aid, including food, clothes, medicine to the people in need personally know and those who I am being told need help that I am learning every day.

I continue to work with charities and organizations on the ground, however, it takes time and usually yields minimal reasonable results in real-time.

 

I realize I can do more by giving the people in need accommodations directly, and that is what I do.
Please join me in funding the roof above the head of the people who need it most right now.
If you have any concerns contributing to my fund because you don’t know me, then I ask that you find a Ukrainian family and directly sponsor them through this terrible time by doing the same thing I can.

Thank you

 

Ivan