30 Ways to Support Ukraine Directly
How Can I Help?
While many of us might feel helpless when confronted with geopolitical machinations of this scale, we’ve rounded up some ways you can help the people of Ukraine right now.
DONATE
Organizations on the ground and globally are actively supporting people within Ukraine and refugees seeking safety elsewhere with medical and humanitarian aid.
These organizations include:
1. People in Need is providing humanitarian aid to over 200,000 people on the ground. For those most in need, they provide food packages, emergency shelter, safe access to drinking water, hygiene items, and coal for heating. Donate here.
2. The Ukrainian Red Cross does loads of humanitarian work, from aiding refugees to training doctors. Donate here.
3. The International Medical Corps is on the front lines and prepared to help citizens with emergency health care services, as well as mental health and psychosocial support. The agency is also keeping the pandemic top of mind throughout the crisis by prioritizing COVID-19 awareness and prevention services, to help keep displaced citizens safe from the pandemic. Donate here.
4. CARE is responding to the crisis by providing Ukrainians in need with food, hygiene kits, psychosocial support services, access to water, and access to cash. Donate here.
5. Nova Ukraine is a nonprofit that delivers aid packages to Ukraine with everything from baby food and hygiene products, to clothes and household supplies. Donate here.
6. UNICEF is repairing schools damaged by the bombings and providing an emergency response to children affected by the conflict. Donate here.
7. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency has stepped up its operations and is working with governments in neighboring countries "calling on them to keep borders open to those seeking safety and protection.” You can help support the UNHCR's work supporting refugees by donating here, and take action here to send a tweet urging governments and businesses to support the United Nations' urgent appeal for $1.7 billion to deliver life-saving humantarian support.
8. OutRight Action International is helping to support LGBTQ+ groups and organizations on the ground, setting up shelters and providing safety for citizens. All donations made to OutRight will go directly to the cause. You can donate here.
9. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is deploying emergency operations in Ukraine and surrounding countries to provide food assistance to those fleeing the conflict. Donate here.
10. Save the Children is working with partners to respond to meet the urgent needs of affected children and their families. It's ready to provide life-saving assistance, such as food, water, cash transfers, and safe places for children as people flee amid freezing temperatures and brutal conditions, and to scale up oprtions to ensure children impacted by the crisis have the support they need. Find out more and donate here.
11. SOS Children’s Villages has worked in Ukraine since 2003 and is coordinating an emergency response to support families who are living in the conflict areas and those who have been internally displaced. Find out more and donate here.
12. Mercy Corps is mobilizing a team to the region to assess where help is most needed, and is anticipating providing emergency cash assistance, as well as supporting local organizations that know their community needs best. Between 2015 and 2017, Mercy Corps provided humanitarian assistance in eastern Ukraine, reaching more than 200,000 people with emergency cash, food, water, and sanitation supplies, small business development grants, restoring war-damaged homes and more. Find out more and donate here.
13. Medical Teams International is fundraising to send medical supplies to the region, with all procees going towards sending medicines and/or medical supplies. Learn more and donate here.
14. The World Health Organization Foundation is raising funds for WHO’s Health Emergency Appeal for Ukraine. An estimated $57.5 million must be raised to deliver urgent physical and mental health care to the 18 million people in Ukraine needing urgent humanitarian assistance, and more than 4 million refugees who’ll need protection and assistance in the coming months. You can donate here, and share the WHO Foundation's call for donations on your own social media, including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
15. Alight is a humanitarian nonprofit that has sent teams of emergency response workers to Poland to assist with the burgeoning refugee population by helping to meet all of their material and psychosocial needs. You can donate here.
16. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is on the front lines of the world’s conflicts, natural disasters, and other crises, helping people recover from extreme hardship and put their lives back together. The IRC currently has a team dispatched to Poland that’s helping to provide food, medical care, and emergency support services to families who fled Ukraine amid the violence. You can donate here.
17. Team Rubicon mobilizes their highly skilled volunteers to help people prepare, respond, and recover from disasters and humanitarian crises. As a World Health Organization Emergency Medical Team mobile unit, Team Rubicon has sent a small team to Poland, including physicians with expertise in pediatrics and maternal and reproductive health care. Donate here to help Team Rubicon rapidly respond to meet humanitarian needs.
18. Direct Relief is working directly with Ukraine’s Ministry of Health and other on-the-ground partners to provide urgently needed medical aid, including emergency response packs intended for first responders, oxygen concentrators, critical care medicines, and much more. Donate here.
19. Namati's Legal Empowerment Network is mobilizing its partner organizations and resources so paralegals and lawyers can help people throughout Ukraine. This includes assistance on documents for crossing the border, rights under martial law, temporary housing and resettlement, support for small businesses, and more. Namati is also providing support for the "distribution of humanitarian aid, including food, clothing, and medicines." You can donate here.
20. GlobalGiving has its Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund, with all donations to the fund going to support humanitarian assistance in impacted communities in Ukraine and surrounding regions. GlobalGiving’s network of over 30 grassroots NGOs are bringing relief to terrified and displaced communities, and they need resources to continue their life-saving work. Donate here.
TAKE ACTION
21. Join a Peace Protest
The world must show a united front with Ukrainians against President Putin's invasion, and demonstrators around the world — from London to Tokyo — have taken to the streets to protest the war. You can find your nearest demonstration here, and you can also take action with Global Citizen, by taking our pledge to protest here — we'll then send you an email with what you need to know about how to attend a protest near you, how to set up a protest, and how to show your solidarity as an individual. You can also join in the protests digitally — find out more about how to join the protest online and take action to support here.
22. Take Action With Global Citizen
Global Citizens all around the world can join us in taking action in several key ways, including rallying the international community to help with urgent funding and medical needs; amplifying the calls of Ukrainian civil society organizations; calling on countries to support refugees, and more. Here’s how:
- The United Nations (UN) has launched an urgent humanitarian appeal for $1.7 billion to deliver life-saving humanitarian support. You can send an urgent tweet in support of the UN's appeal, urging governments and businesses to support the people of Ukraine. Take action here.
Medical supplies in Ukraine are falling dangerously low. We’re partnering with organizations on the ground, Direct Relief and International Medical Corps, to gather urgent medical donations. Help amplify our call by emailing international companies to donate life-saving medical supplies to Ukraine here.
40 Ukrainian civil society organizations have come together with six urgent appeals for the world with the Kyiv Declaration, and you can take action to help them get heard. They request safe spaces to be provided for civilians, sanctions on Russian banks, support for local humanitarian responses, freezing the assets and revoking the visas of Putin and his cronies, defensive military assistance, and provision of equipment to track war crimes and ensure that all those responsible are one day brought to justice. Take action here to help amplify their appeal.
- Russia has launched a direct attack on the Zaporizhzhia power station, one of the largest nuclear sites in Europe. This is the first time in history a state has directly attacked a nuclear site. This huge escalation has been called out by the US and Ukraine as a war crime, and directly goes against the Geneva Convention. Nuclear sites must be off-limits during conflict. Targeting them puts civilians and the environment at huge risk and increases the danger of further escalating the conflict. You can take action by sending an urgent tweet condemning the attack and calling for nuclear sites to be off-limits, here.
- You can also join with millions of people around the world to raise your voice against President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine by sending a tweet condemning the war and calling for an immediate ceasefire to save lives. Take action here.
- You can also take action with us to amplify all the different ways the international community — including businesses, corporations, philanthropists, and more — can help those impacted by the war and bring it to an end. Find out more and take action here.
If you're based in the UK, there are further ways you can take action to help:
- Join us in calling on UK MPs to stand with people fleeing Ukraine and all refugees who need safety and protection, by voting against the Nationality and Borders Bill — also known as the "Anti-Refugee Bill". The proposed bill would punish people that are seeking safety in the UK by stripping basic and essential protections. The UK government has announced its solidarity with Ukraine, and now it's time to put those words into action by providing safe passage and protection to refugees. Take action by emailing your MP here.
- You can also take action with us to directly call on UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel, calling on them to waive the UK's restrictive visa policy and support safe routes for refugees. Take action here.
- Then join us and Make My Money Matter in urging UK pension funds to stop funding the Ukraine invasion. That's because UK pension funds invest in lots of industries, and your pension could well be investing in weapons and Russian industry directly linked to the crisis in Ukraine without you knowing it. Take action by emailing UK pension providers here.
STAY INFORMED
A woman reacts as she waits for a train trying to leave Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2022.
One of the best ways to help the most vulnerable in Ukraine is by staying on top of what is happening on the ground, and learning more about how citizens are being affected by the conflict. We’ve rounded up a few trustworthy sources you can refer to below. If you want to fact-check news and information you're seeing about Ukraine, #UkraineFacts is a great resource; you can also use the fact-checking website of news agency AFP here.
23. The Kyiv Independent has been a leading voice on the front lines, covering a timeline of ongoing events since the beginning and highlighting those who have been most affected by the violent attack. The English-language outlet is continuously reporting on how the invasion and conflict are impacting citizens, the economy, as well as Ukrainian foreign politics. Keep up to date on its website here, or on the Twitter page here.
24. The New Voice of Ukraine: Covering news in three different languages — English, Ukrainian, and Russian — the New Voice of Ukraine has not only covered breaking news, but has released informative analyses on the situation that detail how the situation led to this point, and is continuously publishing op-eds by Ukranian scholars and experts that help to give a view of tone of the situation. Read more on its website here.
25. Ukraine World: While Ukraine World is not posting breaking news and timeline updates on its website, it is very active on its social media accounts. Its independent journalists on the front lines have gathered first-hand footage, and it is using its account to share other informative sources that its followers can refer to in order to keep up to date. Follow Ukraine World here.
26. Kyiv Post is the only non-independent media outlet on this list, and it is important that those following state-funded outlets are aware that they are affiliated with the state.The outlet has been at the forefront of delivering breaking news directly from government and national offices, releasing statements from ministry officials, military leads, and other dignitaries. You can read more on its website here, or follow it on Twitter here.
27. CNN Reporter Dale Dan compiled a Twitter list of verified journalists reporting the best information about the invasion, which you can follow here.
Demonstrators march with a banner that reads: "Ukraine - Peace, Russia - Freedom", in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 24, 2022. Hundreds of people gathered in the center of Moscow on Thursday, protesting against Russia's attack on Ukraine.
28. Olga Tokariuk is a verified independent correspondent working in Kyiv, sending frequent tweets on the latest information while also capturing the humanity of living in Kyiv. Follow her here.
29. Global Leaders are all tweeting their updates and responses to the situation as well. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba are active on Twitter in English, giving regular updates. US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are tweeting about the US and international response to the invasion. And UN Secretary General António Guterres and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are giving updates.
30. Learn more about the background: If this is the first you’re hearing about the crisis in Ukraine and you want to learn more about the background to the situation read this Kyiv Post article, “10 popular misconceptions about Ukraine debunked”; watch Netflix’s documentary Winter On Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom; and listen to this podcast by Ukraine World on how Russia uses disinformation as an instrument of war.