Supporting Ukrainians
To date, Operation USA has distributed $915,000 in emergency grants to partners aiding Ukrainians.
Read on to learn more about how your donations are making a difference.
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UPDATES:
April 28, 2023–This week, OpUSA made an additional $165,000 to partner organization Brook of Hope to aid in ongoing Ukrainian war relief and recovery. This grant will make a meaningful impact on the lives of displaced and war-impacted Ukrainians–primarily the elderly, women and children–by supporting food and hygiene distribution, home repair projects, mobile kitchens and transportation costs. We are so pleased to continue supporting such a worthy group.
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April 10, 2023–This week, OpUSA delivered three additional $50,000 grants to community-based partners aiding Ukrainians: People in Need and Help Age, both of which we have previously supported with grants and which continue to serve vulnerable Ukrainians with vital services; and The Krakow Food Bank.
The Krakow Food Bank was founded in 1997 and has since received the support of local communities and self-government bodies, volunteers and donors. Because of Russia’s aggression on Ukrainian land, the food bank has extended operations to serve and support Ukrainian citizens in Lesser Poland. Together with their partners, the organization plays a vital part in supplying and moving truckloads of basic food, hygiene and pet care products to Ukraine. This $50,000 grant will enable Krakow Food Bank to serve even more Ukrainians in Poland and Ukraine.
We are grateful for the support of our donors, who made this meaningful aid possible.
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February 24, 2023–One year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, conflict rages on, and we at Operation USA remain saddened by the effects of war and violence on Ukrainian communities.
Shortly after the invasion last year, the global humanitarian aid community mobilized support for what was expected to be 3-5 million people in need. Today, the crisis has impacted many more–with a reported 18 million people currently in need of aid inside Ukraine, and an additional 8 million refugees spread across Europe. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, while ongoing violence and attacks continue to wreak havoc on vulnerable communities.
Though humanitarian access to Ukraine – especially in Russian-controlled areas – remains severely hampered due to infrastructure damage, physical threats, and military tactics, hundreds of humanitarian aid organizations–OpUSA included–are working diligently to provide relief. Early in our response, we committed to a strategically phased three-prong response plan. One year out, those phases have shifted to accommodate the reality of real-time war–and we plan to remain agile in assessing needs and providing aid. We are proud to have delivered emergency funding and supplies to varied community-based organizations meeting urgent needs and serving the most marginalized groups. To date, we have distributed $600,000 in grants to six worthy groups supporting children and families, the elderly and members of the LGBTQI+ community with access to food and water, psychological support, health and hygiene supplies, dedicated support services and winterization. We have also sent shipments of material aid including medical kits and shelter supplies to groups working on the ground with impacted Ukrainians.
As we look ahead, we are readying grants totaling $170,000 for four additional groups aiding Ukrainians, to be disbursed in the coming weeks. This funding will support access to nutritious food for the displaced, as well as provide general support for impacted Ukrainians. We are so grateful for the support of you, our donors, and of our corporate partners, like Honeywell, whose generosity makes this important work possible.
Sadly, we expect the situation in Ukraine to remain volatile for the foreseeable future. Our thoughts are with all those who must continue to grapple with the effects of ongoing war in their own communities. We at OpUSA remain committed to providing aid however we are able, and continue to assess any/all opportunities to provide relief– primarily via emergency cash grants to community-based partners on the ground supporting refugees and the internally displaced. Your donations empower us to help where it’s needed most. Please consider a gift to this or any of our ongoing relief efforts today at
give.opusa.org. Thank you.
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February 13, 2023–This week, Operation USA will deploy a shipment of material aid, including medical supplies and other relief items, to partners in Ukraine. We are grateful to all partners and donors who made this shipment possible.
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December 12, 2022–This week, we delivered a $20,000 grant to OutRight International–an organization that has been working in Ukraine since 2006, providing juridical and legal assistance to socially vulnerable groups of the population–and VOTUM, which has identified more than 250 requests for humanitarian support from representatives of the LGBTQI+ community. This grant will enable VOTUM to provide food, hygiene, warm clothes and psychological consultations to this vulnerable population group. Thank you for donating and making this meaningful grant possible.
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November 22, 2022–Today, we made another $50,000 grant to Brook of Hope in support of ongoing relief efforts for Ukrainians. This grant will allow for the purchase of additional generators for families to help provide comfort and combat suffering during the cold winter months. Thank you for making this meaningful grant possible.
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October 15, 2022–This week, we made an additional grant in the amount of $145,000 to Brook of Hope to further assist in the distribution of critical aid to Ukrainians impacted by war. Brook of Hope has focused on providing aid to smaller villages and towns, and with this most recent grant will help those communities prepare for the coming winter months with generators, food and fuel, warm clothing, gloves and hats, blankets and other essential supplies for cold weather. Brook of Hope has worked diligently throughout this crisis to identify and support families most in need and to provide the most urgent forms of aid. We are so proud to support such a worthy partner. Your donations make this work possible. Thank you.
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July 15, 2022–This week, Operation USA made two additional $50,000 grants to People in Need and Help Age in continued support of displaced Ukrainians. We are so pleased to again support these worthy partners.
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June 24, 2022–This week, Operation USA made another $50,000 grant to Brook of Hope in support of re-entry and resettlement assistance for displaced Ukrainians. Brook of Hope has provided critical support to Ukrainians throughout the ongoing conflict, and we are proud to continue supporting this worthy partner. Your donations make this work possible. Thank you.
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May 3, 2022–This week, Operation USA made two additional emergency grants to partners aiding refugees on the ground in Eastern Europe. We are pleased to send another $50,000 to Brook of Hope in support of moving supplies into and shuttling refugees out of Ukraine; as well as $50,000 to People in Need, which is helping as many 200,000 people with emergency food, water and other supplies. We are so proud to support these worthy partners. Your donations make this work possible. Thank you.
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April 5, 2022–Operation USA is pleased to have made two additional emergency grants to community-based partners in support of Ukrainian relief.
This week, OpUSA sent a $25,000 grant to HelpAge USA, which has worked in Ukraine since 2014, and has 200 staff in the area. HelpAge USA is now providing support to as 5,000 older people–who are particularly vulnerable–in the east of the country via food, medicine and health and hygiene supplies.
We have also sent a $50,000 grant to Nova Ukraine, which is providing extensive support to Ukrainians through a variety of efforts. This funding will support Nova Ukraine’s activities directing evacuation requests from citizens in the most-affected cities; building a network of volunteers in Ukraine, Europe and the U.S.; providing assistance via email and a dedicated hotline to affected civilians needing help; helping to secure legal assistance for refugees when they arrive in the U.S.; and, funding local Ukrainian partners and organizations who are able to deliver immediate assistance to those in need.
We thank all generous donors who have made our emergency grantmaking efforts possible. Please visit
give.opusa.org to help now.
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March 29, 2022–This week, Operation USA sent a $50,000 grant to Brook of Hope to aid ongoing Ukrainian relief efforts. Brook of Hope has been working in Ukraine since 2017, and at this time is focused on supplying partners within Ukraine with vital equipment while also helping to evacuate vulnerable Ukrainians. This grant, made possible by our generous supporters, will enable Brook of Hope to supply and fund humanitarian convoys–delivering food and medical supplies, equipping under-supplied hospitals and shuttling refugees out of attacked cities. We’re so proud to support such a worthy group.
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March 27, 2022–Operation USA thanks partners at White Pony Express, a Northern California-based relief group, for their commitment to aiding Ukrainian relief efforts. The organization gathered medical supplies, assembled medical kits and delivered those items to our warehouse in the Port of LA to be forwarded to partners heading to Eastern Europe. This week, we will hand off some of the medical supplies provided by WPE to a team of doctors in Los Angeles who will hand carry the items into Poland in order to provide health care support at the border. We’re so grateful for our partners who have made this relief effort possible.
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March 16, 2022–Operation USA is grateful to media workers like Tom Remp who are dedicated to shining a spotlight on the refugee crisis at Poland’s borders in real time and helping small organizations like OpUSA inform the public by making images freely available for use. See some of Tom’s recent photos from the border
here.
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March 7, 2022–This week, Operation USA delivered a $10,000 emergency grant to
Razom in support of ongoing relief activities. The organization is called “Razom” because it means “together” in Ukrainian, and serves as a constant reminder of the community that it takes to create, build and do, to stay the path towards a more prosperous and democratic Ukraine. We are so pleased to support this worthy group during this time of great need. Your donations make this work possible. Thank you.
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March 2, 2022–The situation in Ukraine and its neighboring countries continues to develop rapidly. At this time, Operation USA is working diligently to identify all opportunities to provide aid. We are communicating with corporate and transportation partners located in the U.S. to assess the feasibility of international material aid shipments–which, if confirmed, will target priority supplies to partners on the ground in Poland helping Ukrainian refugees who have entered the country. OpUSA is also assessing opportunities to facilitate shipments of in-kind aid from corporate partners in Europe directly to frontline partners. Additionally, OpUSA is also working diligently to distribute emergency cash grants to community-based organizations supporting displaced Ukrainian families. Our ability to make cash grants (the most effective type of aid at this time!) is directly dependent on the generosity of our donors. We thank you for your continued support. Please donate now at
give.opusa.org.
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February 26, 2022–Operation USA is in touch with the Association of Community Foundations in Poland, and is assessing any/all opportunities to provide aid to Ukrainian refugees entering and/or passing through the country. In addition to bulk shipments of material aid, we also hope–as funds allow–to make cash grants and provide additional support to small but effective community-based partners aiding vulnerable families. Donations from supporters are critical at this time. Please visit
give.opusa.org to get involved now.
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February 24, 2022–Yesterday, Russian military forces invaded Ukraine, launching attacks on cities across the nation. Though many Ukrainians were sheltering in place, warfare and resulting damage to cities will likely drive many to flee. An estimated 100,000 Ukrainians have already been internally displaced in the country, and experts predict an immediate refugee crisis with anywhere from one to five million Ukrainian refugees likely to flood into nearby countries.
As a wide variety of aid organizations across Eastern Europe prepare to receive and aid refugees arriving from Ukraine, the need for material support is critical in order to provide those displaced by war with basic necessities, clothing, food and water, shelter materials and other vital supplies. Operation USA is currently mobilizing alongside American aid groups and calling on partners in Poland–where a massive influx of refugees are expected to arrive–to facilitate the delivery of much-needed material aid to refugee camps. Our ability to do this work and help vulnerable Ukrainians is dependent on the generosity of our donors. Please consider a gift to this effort today at
give.opusa.org.
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February 23, 2022–Operation USA is monitoring the developing situation in Ukraine and is preparing aid to partners in Poland in anticipation of a potential refugee crisis.
Should military tensions/actions escalate, we expect Polish cities such as Lublin to receive an influx of Ukrainian refugees who are fleeing the violence. Having previously worked in Poland during the early 1980s, and with close ties to partners across sectors, OpUSA is poised to help facilitate the delivery of material aid to partners supporting refugees there. As such, we are prudently preparing for all possibilities and planning to deploy aid quickly and efficiently should it become necessary.
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HOW TO HELP:
Cash donations are the best way to support our efforts at this time. Visit
give.opusa.org to donate now.
Operation USA is also working with corporate partners who can provide appropriate material aid in bulk, to be shipped to on the ground partners. If you are interested in a bulk, corporate donation, please email info@opusa.org.
Operation USA does not deploy volunteers. If you are interested in volunteer opportunities, we recommend reaching out to International Medical Corps (if you have relevant medical expertise/experience), International Rescue Committee or the International Red Cross.
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Your donations at this time make our work possible. Thank you.