From top: Children’s clothing at Amurtel’s free shop, Greece; Dobra Fabrika’s Mateusz Gasiński and Ania Kieniewicz; Delivering crutches in Eastern Ukraine
Humanity Now just got back from Poland and Greece where we met with teams providing vital aid, like clothing for displaced babies in Athens and Polish lessons for refugees in Krakow. Right now, we’re completing our funding decisions. Our next newsletter will describe how we’ve allocated your generous donations.
Today, though, we want to share some unexpected good news.
First, a little background. Last December, we distributed $5700 to our partner Dobra Fabryka to provide medical aid to people living at the edge of Ukraine’s war zone. All the grant recipients have serious health issues and many of them are also displaced. To accomplish the mission, Dobra Fabryka staffers had to travel around the region to meet with each recipient and distribute medical supplies and vouchers. This work is labor-intensive and risky. In total, our funding supported 83 vulnerable people.
When we met with Dobra Fabryka’s Mateusz Gasiński and Ania Kieniewicz this month, they told us that the medical voucher project was very successful. In fact, the international NGO Medair was so impressed that it committed an additional $80,000 to keep the program running for another 6 months, providing ongoing aid to 1200 people. Mateusz told us that they’d always hoped that the Humanity Now grant could work as a pilot project that would attract funds for expansion later. “We wanted to see how it worked,” he said, “and it worked perfectly.”
We’re thrilled that our funding had such an impact. The relative modesty of the project is important, too. In a world where the financial news keeps focusing on “millions” and “billions” and “trillions,” the effectiveness of these small grants demonstrates that we can have a positive effect on people’s lives, even without big investments.
As international aid declines around the world, even in a place as devastated as Ukraine, the role of organizations like Humanity Now, Dobra Fabryka, and Medair becomes even more critical. We long for the day when the global community will announce “trillions” in humanitarian support for the world’s most vulnerable people, but there’s a lot we can do to help right now. Our partners on the ground keep working even as larger institutions retreat. As Ania put it, “We go in when they leave.”
Political posters in Lesvos
Some uplifting street art
What We Saw
on the Streets
In some ways, Europe has a more vibrant “village square” than we have in the United States. Posters, graffiti, and street art give us a window on an extremely active public discourse, and there might not be any conversation more passionate right now than the one about immigration. We thought we’d share a few photos.
Massive graffiti on a building facade in Athens
Bus shelter signage in Athens
