Champions stand in the gap, even in war

I recently interviewed Svitlana Muzychenko, founder of UA Brokers Without Borders, for my podcast, and I learned a startling fact about the war in Ukraine that I hadn't heard in any news accounts.

Grassroots nonprofits in Ukraine, which meet most of the emerging humanitarian needs, receive almost none of the aid coming into the country (0.0003%).

Why?

Larger humanitarian aid groups require a track record in order to disperse their funds. It's understandable. Safeguards are in place to make sure donor dollars are put in trustworthy hands. But what if a grassroots organization is brand new precisely because they're responding to a brand new need? These groups have no track record to access the large-org's funds, and funds don't typically come from Ukrainian citizens, whose support instead goes to help the Ukrainian military repel the Russian army and put an end to the war. After all, the war is the root cause of their suffering.

So where does the money come from?

This is where UA Brokers Without Borders stands in the gap. Svitlana is Ukrainian, but she lives in Brazil. She and other Ukrainian expats banded together to form the organization to do what they could for their native country from afar.

Svitlana and her organization not only raise funds for these upstart orgs on the front lines, they also help them build their track record of measurable success, so that the larger humanitarian aid groups can disperse their funds to them.

"These people are working in a warzone!" Svitlana said. "They can't be on a two-hour Zoom call presenting slides about their work. We do that for them because we can."

That's what Champions do. We recognize a need and start addressing it.

Because we can.

Because we must.

Because we can't not!

I was humbled interviewing Svitlana, because it is hard to wrap my mind around the scope of her cause, and how many lives are at stake. The good news is she's not alone.

She and UA Brokers Without Borders are partnered with fellow Champions who are on the ground -- people like Valeriia Ovcharova, who founded the grassroots group Yes, which provides humanitarian assistance to 3,000+ internally displaced people near the fought-over Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor every month, as well as to other groups of people.

Champions are moved to action to stand in the gaps, and especially when lives are at stake in a war, they do so despite great risks. If you want to help Svitlana and all of those people working on the ground in Ukraine, you can donate here.

If you missed the episode, recorded on Ukrainian Independence Day no less, it's here. A new episode of Champions of the Lost Causes podcast, featuring my friends Erin and Dawn from ioby, will post on Monday.