Razom’s Emergency Response is the SOS button that is pressed in times of need. And this time is now! 

 

Razom for Ukraine is one of the largest Ukrainian diaspora organizations based in the U.S. and focuses on delivering life-saving medical supplies to people in need in Ukraine. Razom’s teams of volunteers – a truly diverse group of individuals and partnering organizations across the US, Europe, and Ukraine was founded in 2014, during the arising conflict in Eastern Ukraine.

 

What does Razom mean?

 

Razom, which means “together” in Ukrainian, believes in the enormous potential of dedicated volunteers around the world united by a single goal: to unlock the potential of Ukraine. We work towards that mission by creating spaces where people meet, partner, and act.

 

Our current emergency response

 

Razom has maintained an open Emergency Response project since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014 where we mobilized to procure medical and tactical supplies to the eastern front.  We picked up this project again in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to fundraise for, procure, and deliver medical supplies across COVID-19 hot spots in Ukraine. When reports came that Russia began amassing troops on Ukraine’s borders, we began actively promoting for the Emergency Response fund again on February 18, 2022.

 

Raising $ 1.8 million within two weeks!

 

All of our fundraising efforts for the Emergency Response project are conducted via social media and word-of-mouth.  Donors have the option to donate via Facebook and Instagram where individuals are able to start their own fundraising campaigns on behalf of an organization.

 

Since fundraising efforts began on February 18th via Facebook, our campaign went viral and people around the world launched independent Instagram fundraisers. To date, people have donated over $768,000 via social media alone. These funds will take as much as four weeks to transfer to our accounts, as per the policies of Meta.

 

However, with the increased visibility of Razom as a trusted resource for individuals looking to do something about the injustices and tragedy in Ukraine,  many people chose to donate directly to our PayPal and bank accounts. Since February 18th, we’ve raised over $1.05M through those efforts. Within 5 days 14,371 donors contributed directly; the average donation size was under $100. In total, we expect to have $1.8M to deploy.

 

We spend the funds effectively and disperse quickly

 

Currently our work is focused on purchasing tactical medical supplies (for critical situations like blood loss etc. in the field) and medical supplies needed in hospitals. Thanks to having one of the largest and most active volunteer networks in the Ukrainian-American diaspora, we’ve been able to quickly build a procurement team that purchases life-saving supplies across the US and Europe. Additionally, thanks to our years of work with volunteers and organizations in Ukraine, we have a logistics team that’s able to transport our supplies from Warsaw, Poland to Ukraine.  

 

Read more about our work below!

 

Photo Credit: UN OCHA, Volodymyr Shuvayev