Scrunchies For A Cause: Ways You Can Help Ukraine

On February 24th, 2022 Russian forces invaded Ukraine and what we've been witnessing since has been truly horrific. Since the invasion and the ongoing war, charities and individuals have pulled together to help in any way possible. I recently recorded a podcast with a list of charities and other ways to donate that you can listen to HERE, or you can find their quick links below:

Specifically Ukraine Charities:

Razom For Ukraine: Razom is a dedicated charity for Ukraine that is currently raising money to send critical medical supplies to the front lines. They have several informational tabs on their website to help everyone reach as many people as possible. 

Sunflowers of Peace: Sunflowers of Peace has teamed up with Razom to help raise money to donate critical medical supplies to the front lines with first-aid backpacks going to first responders and medical personnel. Based out of Boston they also have volunteer opportunities for those in the US. 

Come Back Alive: This funds the Ukrainian military directly, but for those inside the US, the way to donate is a little different than if you're in Europe. You can also donate directly to the Ukrainian military at the NBU using GooglePay. 

Revived Soldiers Ukraine: Revived Soldiers Ukraine is like the Ukrainian version of Wounded Warrior. They also have a link to their Amazon wishlist that has items to send to the current military fighting. 

Voices of Children: VOC has been helping Ukrainian children affected by war since 2015, but is now helping with evacuation efforts as well as psychological assistance.

DiozPL: DiozPL is a group of Polish vets that have been going back and forth across the border to rescue animals of all kinds and bringing them to Poland for aid and rehoming. They have a current Instagram fund going to help with the purchase of gas, vans, and food to support the mission.

Charities that help around the world but have assistance for Ukraine: 

CARE: CARE has been helping globally for 75 years but has a specific direct fund for Ukraine, primarily set to help women and children and the elderly first with money, aid, and other supplies.

IRC: International Rescue Committee has been helping refugees for decades and has teams set up globally where needed. They have a current fund going for Ukrainian refugees.

World Central Kitchen: World Central Kitchen helps feed refugees from around the world with hot, fresh meals, and has already served over one million meals across Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, Romania, and Hungary. 

Other Ways You can Help:

Of course there's plenty of other ways you can also help support Ukraine right now. Most bigger cities have churches that are collection donations of all sorts to send - the biggest need usually being medicine and men's socks and underwear. Those need to be new, but most other clothing items just need to be gently worn - so it's the perfect time to donate as you spring clean. 

You can also help support individual Ukranian makers with the help of Etsy and Spoonflower.

On Etsy:

Simply click HERE or follow these directions: Go to Etsy directly (never click on Etsy ads from Google or Facebook) and type in "digital downloads" into the search bar. After it searches, click the "all filters" button underneath the search and scroll to the bottom where it says location. In the custom bar type in "Ukraine" and from there it will only show Ukrainian registered shops. You can also find shops, like mine, that have products that are sending donations to any number of charities by typing in "Ukraine donation" in the search bar. 

On Spoonflower:

You can click this link HERE to be taken to a curated collection that Spoonflower and Shutterfly came up with to help Ukrainian makers. Shutterfly and Spoonflower are also donating $50,000 to CARE and have several avenues to help Ukrainian makers that sell on the site. 

On AirBNB:

AirBNB has waved fees currently for Ukrainian hosts and guests who book stays with Ukrainian homes. You can also go HERE to see other ways to help via AirBNB which include hosting a refugee (must be able to commit to 6 months), donate to the fund that is partnering with a $10 million dollar donation to helping fund housing refugees at this time. 

On Sock Bun Studios:

You can find donation scrunchies HERE that proceeds go to CARE.