Help Families
A unique project for Ukraine gains some momentum, let's support it
As the war in Ukraine is further escalating, the reports are increasingly gruesome and disturbing. The shelling of civilians yesterday in Irpin, a township close to Kyiv, was captured by the BBC and the NYT’s Lynsey Addario. It made the NYT frontpage, see below, and while horrendous, we should all look it in the eyes to really see what is going on. With that it is becoming quite clear where we need to focus our support.
There are lots of ways to do this, ranging from wiring funds to the Red Cross to actually going there yourself, but the latter is not always feasible or advisable. The best way is to support people directly and the tech world has figured something out. Alex Iskold who is NY-based early stage stage investor has launched the $1k Project. The way it works is simple, if you want to support a family with $1k you register and within (in my case) 24 hours you get connected to a Ukrainian family in need, their e-mail and bank card number and then you can send them funds directly using Wise. It is a US-project so it does not connect to a Canadian bank, so I routed my payment through our credit card, some fees apply but it is a good cause so I topped up the amount to ensure the recipients were not affected by the fee. Note by the way these are US Dollars. If you don’t want to send $1k, there are lower amount options, but it may also be something for your team, company, neighbourhood group, book club, whatever to get together and support Ukrainian families that are in extreme need.
And yes, from what I have seen it is a reputable and safe route, some of the biggest US names in venture capital have checked it out and endorsed it, so it should all be fine. I actually send my request to contribute on Saturday and Sunday AM woke up to what was going on in Irpin. So when I got the actual prompt to send funds later on Sunday to a family in Kharkiv, there was zero doubt in my mind that this is where our support should go right now. Join in and help if you can.
