SupportUkraineNOW

On February 24, 2022, at 5am Kyiv time, Ukrainian cities woke up with the most terrifying alarm clock – the sounds of the massive bombing. This was it – Russia had escalated a full-scale war against Ukraine. Since then, Ukrainian Global Shapers have united forces with the global community of 14,000 members to consolidate all efforts in addressing the war in Ukraine. Today, the initiative SupportUkraineNow (SUN) by Global Shapers has grown into the most comprehensive guide on how foreigners can help Ukraine. Overall, on the 12th day of war the SUN had reached 350k visitors and processed 1000+ requests. What is SupportUkraineNOW? It is a resource to help with: 1. Donating to official funds 2. Joining a protest in your city, influence your authorities, spread the word on social media 3. Sending humanitarian help to Ukraine 4. Joining the foreign legion 5. Hosting Ukrainian refugees, and helping them locally: humanitarian help, legal aid, emotional support 6. Hiring Ukrainians And behind the scenes, the SUN team works on the coordination of foreign help and volunteers. As of now, we’ve developed a requests support team, legal aid team, humanitarian aid coordination, and fund verification team. This project represents a model of how the international community can organise a humanitarian response to all kinds of crises. The role of volunteers is, first of all, to support and back up a government by being fast-paced and self-organised. The last two weeks during which the war in Ukraine has unfolded have shown that the global society is united like an invisible web all over the world. All international communities you have ever been part of will be an asset for you in order to pull the right strings and reach much-needed help. At the same time, we focus on those activities in which we have expertise. For others, we engage local volunteers or professionals in other countries. That helps us engage new expertise and grow.