Best charity to help Ukranian refugees?

[Pitlamp]

Given there appears to be no sign of the Moscow Murderer ending his appalling and barbaric war crimes, does anyone have any thoughts on the best organisation to donate to, to help the growing number of Ukranian refugees?

I like the look of this: https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-humanitarian-appeal

The DEC seems to have assorted charities already focussed on Ukraine under its umbrella, including the Red Cross.

Any other suggestions?

 

[MJenkinson]

I have donated to the Red Cross which falls under DEC. Your link would seem a sensible avenue.

 

[tomferry]

My children?s school even though it?s a small village one have collected a large amount of supply?s  already this week ,clothes ,medical ,tents ,sleeping bags . It?s amazing how many parents donated brand new things they have purchased and forgot about also a good 12 bin bags of nappies !  It got shipped of earlier today .

 

[Pitlamp]

Thanks both. Good for your childres' school.

I'm fresh out of nappies (!) - I specifically want to give money.

 

[Speleofish]

I used the DEC website, which was incredibly easy. Does anyone have any experience of living rooms to refugees? Several of us are contemplating offering but, given it's a small, remote village, it could be quite an isolating experience for anyone who came (and I see from the internet that most if not all the charities are based in sizeable towns and cities).

 

[Pitlamp]

I just used the DEC website too and the payment went through fine.

I doubt this will be my only donation so it'd be good to have a few alternative recommended charities receiving financial aid to help Ukranian refugees, if anyone has alternative suggestions.

 

[Cantclimbtom]

Many Russians genuinely believe that they are "defending" Russia with this "operation", their news says nothing else. With an impasse like that, no good is going to happen any time soon and ordinary innocent people will continue get *&$ over perhaps for a long time

Although I'm a big fan of local lightweight charities above the big "professional" ones due to wanting to fund the beneficiaries not the charities, the big ones will be the ones best placed to coordinate such a huge effort and they have people on the ground already. Although I may move my support to smaller charities later, I'm donating via DEC (link in Pitlamp's original post) especially as the UK government is currently matching gift aided donations.

 

[Benfool]

Another alternative would be MSF: https://www.msf.org/

B

 

[Pitlamp]

Thanks Tom - some very good points there.

Thanks Benfool - I'd not thought of MSF; they might be allowed to help where others aren't (due to a good record of not taking sides in previous conflicts).

 

[alanw]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ukraine-what-you-can-do-to-help recommends the DEC (https://donation.dec.org.uk/ukraine-humanitarian-appeal)

The United Nations Children's Fund: https://www.unicef.org/ukraine/en

Red Cross: https://www.icrc.org/en/donate/ukraine

Rather than buying goods here, donate cash. Donating tents / chairs / clothes / sleeping bags you already have is, of course, a good thing, too, though there seem to be difficulties with the supply lines, where medicine and food must have priority.

https://theconversation.com/how-to-responsibly-donate-to-ukrainian-causes-178391

 

[digscaves]

I donated without any issues to :-

Help Ukraine Emergency Appeal on gofundme via The Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/helpukraine/share?qid=546c25e9bfc9c469b7f7a57691d3d7c4

or https://gofund.me/22b0fbf1

Go fund me page has details of aims and the various organisations within Ukraine they are working with right now.

I came across the above via BBC news site some days ago. Latest updated link https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60562260 Nearly ?2m raised now.

Chris

 

[Pegasus]

We donated to the Red Cross, but agree with Pitlamp it won't be just one donation as we watch the horror unfold.

I've also written to my MP and will continue to do so as I don't feel the the UK is acting hard or fast enough against the dirty Russian money in London.

I'm also looking out for campaigns to boycott companies callous enough to put profit before lives by still trading in Russia, if anyone sees any, let us know.

It's not much, but we have to do something.

 

[RobinGriffiths]

Need to put some pressure on China as well. Boycott stuff from China. No Chinese bits and bobs from Ebay for me from now on.

 

[PeteHall]

My children?s school even though it?s a small village one have collected a large amount of supply?s  already this week ,clothes ,medical ,tents ,sleeping bags . It?s amazing how many parents donated brand new things they have purchased and forgot about also a good 12 bin bags of nappies !  It got shipped of earlier today .

Our kids school has told the kids that "other people" are helping them, so they shouldn't get upset about it...

 

[BradW]

At a meeting last night with the Nottingham branch of the Association of Ukrainians of GB, there were 2 Nottingham MPs and three local Authority Officers. One key message we took from the meeting - we have to stop collecting and sending clothes and food and blankets. They are overwhelmed with them in Poland - even if refugee numbers doubled or trebled they have enough food stocks to last more than a year. Essential need is for medical supplies and for those specialist items they need money. The advice is to donate directly to the DEC Disasters Emergency Committee - otherwise crowdfunding sites (all well-meaning of course) knock 3% off for admin. If you donate directly and gift-aid it they get 125% of your money rather than 97% - and the Government promised to match up to ?20M. Hope that helps.

 

[adrian paniwnyk]

I donated to Go Fund Me the link is above.

 

[Fjell]

We donated to the Red Cross, but agree with Pitlamp it won't be just one donation as we watch the horror unfold.

I've also written to my MP and will continue to do so as I don't feel the the UK is acting hard or fast enough against the dirty Russian money in London.

I'm also looking out for campaigns to boycott companies callous enough to put profit before lives by still trading in Russia, if anyone sees any, let us know.

It's not much, but we have to do something.

Putin all but threatened the UK with a nuclear strike over what the UK has done to Russia. We have nicked something like ?250bn of their reserves. We are not besties.

https://amp.ft.com/content/3f1c7151-93ed-48ff-a23c-496320919621

I imagine the Ukrainian president is more enthused about the 2000 NLAWs we sent in Jan which they have used to kill thousands of Russians.

 

[Fjell]

The problem with ?dirty money? is that it is the eye of the beholder. It is up to the Russian government to decide if it was obtained illegally. In most cases in the 90?s it came to be owned by the last man standing, literally. I once met some of these people in Siberia in the 90?s. Scary scary people.

If it is deemed illegal, the owner will be the Russian government in the end. All the UK can do is not allow the money to stay here, for which they will need grounds. Also some of these people are British citizens and we have a thing called the Human Rights Act.

The reality is that most if these people have nothing to do with Putin, and all that crossed him in the past are dead.

 

[EvilStu]

Given there appears to be no sign of the Moscow Murderer ending his appalling and barbaric war crimes, does anyone have any thoughts on the best organisation to donate to, to help the growing number of Ukranian refugees?

I like the look of this: https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-humanitarian-appeal

The DEC seems to have assorted charities already focussed on Ukraine under its umbrella, including the Red Cross.

Any other suggestions?

I would second donating via the DEC, its what I used to send a donation, it can also be gift aided and the UK government are matching the funding up to 20 million quid. They are using established charities already active on the ground.