Moldova / Ukraine

What happened

I traveled to Moldova at the outbreak of the war with a humanitarian organization. Refugees crossing on foot were bused to a transit area a few kilometers inside Moldova, a parking lot with a handful of tents, where mothers and children waited for hours in the snow for onward buses. The largest tent had the only two space heaters in the lot, and no generator capacity to run more.

Within days I launched an independent effort alongside the organization. A message to my own network raised $25,000 overnight and roughly $35,000 over the following ten days. The next day a second generator was at the border, with fuel paid for, so more heaters could run. Diapers and baby cream were left at the crossing for mothers arriving after the journey through Ukraine, and 300 hygiene kits went to the refugee shelters in the capital.

The pivot

Once the larger organizations had the border covered, the gap moved inside Ukraine. Medical supplies were sourced against lists from hospitals, and the money went to the items and the places others were not covering: hundreds of tourniquets and trauma equipment, basic medicines, delivered to teams in Kyiv and Kharkiv. The remaining funds were handed to another operator working directly on the ground in Ukraine, to buy against the needs he was seeing.

What it taught me

I delivered a generator and never planned for who would pay for the fuel after I left. I asked another organization to carry it, and I do not know whether they did. Delivery is not the end, so the maintenance and ownership burden is now planned into every project.