Charity during the war | Economic truth

When on February 24, 2022, all of Ukraine heard the first explosions from the Russian aircraft, and the roads were filled with cars fleeing in the Zakhad — in Lviv, in the office of the Regno Italy UA company, active citizens gathered in the first hours of the invasion.

These were representatives of public organizations “People’s Self-Defense of Lviv region”, “Plast. Lviv” and others, businessmen, volunteers who mobilized to solve the critical humanitarian needs of the country in which a full-scale war had begun. People with different views and businesses united to treat, feed, settle…

The first month is 486 trucks in Kyiv, Kherson, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, and Donetsk regions; these are more than 2,000 Ukrainian and foreign volunteers who met, resettled refugees, sorted and packed food, medicine, and clothing every day for free; this is the round-the-clock work of the “Regno Italia UA” office, which has become a unifying center for various businesses and new international donors.

“We all became one single living organism and in this state we became invincible,” recalls Andrii Nemyrovskyi, head of the charitable organization “Center for Volunteerism and Protection” (Lviv).

In the first days, it was important not to panic, gather strength into a fist and act. Having a positive experience of cooperation with foreign partners and a good reputation, we began to receive the first large batches of free assistance from businesses from abroad.

At the same time, humanitarian aid was received from foreign citizens, international funds and public organizations.

One of the first partners to support us was the Italian company Toso SpA. With the Lviv office of Alterra, we jointly organized the work of warehouses, and our friends ViYAR helped us organize operational processes.

“In the first month of the full-scale war, aid from abroad began to arrive on such a large scale that a week later we were forced to switch to system rails. From a large volunteer movement of businesses, we organized into the “Center for Volunteerism and Protection” and I was elected its head.” — says Andrii Nemyrovskyi.

Employees of the Fund, whose number today is 73, are engaged in verification of requests through call center, organization of logistics, transshipment of aid through Poland, search for those who need help and systematic work with donors.

For a year of full-scale war TsVZ united more than 2,000 volunteers and jointly sent aid – 1,491 trucks to 24 regions of Ukraine. The equivalent amount of humanitarian aid amounted to 98.9 million dollars. All figures are listed in our open report.

From one-time aid to the largest humanitarian hub in Ukraine

The creation of the “Center for Volunteering and Protection” gave its founders a number of key advantages. First, an open and understandable structure with a board and a supervisory board was organized, which strengthened the confidence of donors in making decisions to increase aid and attract new benefactors.

The center began to promptly respond to humanitarian needs and quickly verify them.

In a short time, with the help of partners, a high level of expertise in warehouse logistics was established. Today, the Center has 8 regional logistics hubs (Lviv, Kyiv, Poltava, Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv, Kherson and Kostiantynivka).

For your understanding, all the logistics of humanitarian projects are being organized today in a few days from Europe to recipients in hot spots. “Red Cross”, the international charitable organization Caritas and others approached the Center for logistics issues. At the request of the Ministry of Health, the Center organized the delivery of medical supplies for mobile hospitals.

From March 2022 TsVZ established a partnership with the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) regarding humanitarian projects in Ukraine. One of the many joint projects with UCU was donor aid from Ireland to provide the city of Mykolaiv with means of water purification.

UKU also helped with tactical medicine, because in the first months there was an acute shortage of drugs specifically for tactical medicine.

At the same time, the chain of pharmacies “Podorozhnyk” played an active role in assisting the Center, providing it with the necessary medicines.

The “food kit” project was implemented with the Binance crypto exchange, 5,000 IDPs were provided with financial aid for 3 months, scarce drugs to stop bleeding were purchased (tactical first aid kit).

The Solar Steel Construction company (Dnipro) provided its freight transport for the delivery of humanitarian aid throughout Ukraine and paid for the purchase of generators.

Together with the famous American fund United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, Inc. (ZUADK) already at the beginning of autumn 2022, powerful diesel generators (664 units) were purchased for infrastructure facilities and medical facilities throughout Ukraine.

The OKKO company helped with refueling them with diesel fuel. In addition, a huge amount of humanitarian aid, including medical equipment, came from ZUADK.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is helping with the informational support of the TsVZ fund.

This list is not complete. But all projects are memorable to us and we show deep respect to each benefactor. You can familiarize yourself with the projects on our website and in the company’s public report for 2022.

Lviv Regional Logistics Center “Volunteering and Protection Center”

Transformation of strategy and CSR

“Volunteering — it’s to be where you’re needed right now,” – the expression has become our axiom, admits Andriy Nemyrovskyi, chairman of the board of BO “TsVZ”.

Having personally visited all the liberated territories, the manager came to the conclusion that it is necessary to help restore business in the de-occupied territories, thus creating new jobs there.

Along with this, there are regions where basic necessities and drinking water are still lacking, and there are regions where infrastructure reconstruction and housing construction are needed. Today, the Fund is tasked with focusing specifically on helping to rebuild housing and damaged infrastructure.

In addition, one of the priority directions will remain the increase of medical assistance. Assistance to farmers is also important.

Andrii Nemyrovsky believes that socially active business in Ukraine is the future. The majority of Ukrainians will trust and prefer those TMs and companies that support the population of Ukraine and the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the war.

This article was implemented by the “Center for Volunteering and Protection” as part of the Program for the Promotion of Public Activity “Join!”, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Pact in Ukraine. The content of this article is the sole responsibility of Pact and its partners and does not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the US government