About Us
Who we are, our story and our mission.
Our Story
Friends of Be an Angel is a registered 501(c)(3) charity which provides humanitarian aid, civilian evacuation to safety and aids in the fight for well-being and human rights of refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) of Ukraine. Our organization initially placed a large emphasis on providing medicine and medical supplies, equipment for first responders, food and necessities for IDPs and other critical supplies which were needed during the initial events of the full-scale invasion, however we have since expanded our operations to providing medical evacuations for complex diseases and injuries, introducing large-scale education platforms for thousands of children suffering from war-induced trauma, rehabilitation of critical infrastructure and other vital reconstruction efforts for the Ukrainian people.
Friends of Be An Angel is headquartered in Milwaukee, USA and has employees and volunteers across the United States, central Europe and within Ukraine. Our strength comes through our director and her work prior to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Anya Verkhovskaya has been a a prominent human rights activist in the international scene, as well as a defender of the rights and welfare of refugees and IDPs within Ukraine prior to the full-scale invasion in Ukraine. Her work together with other charities and international organizations has allowed Friends of Be an Angel to build upon existing networks, expand and provide the most effective aid strategies to the particularly vulnerable, and often forgotten, portions of the population of Ukraine. You can read more about her story and her fight for human rights here.
Be an Angel Network
The name “Friends of Be an Angel” comes from our representation as the sister organization in the United States for our sibling organization, Be an Angel. Be an Angel was originally founded in Berlin during the Syrian Refugee Crisis of 2015, but has since expanded to headquarters stationed in Milwaukee (USA), Berlin (Germany), Chisinau (Moldova) and Odesa (Ukraine).
Be an Angel e.V. was brought to life by our friend and founder Andreas Tölke and Ulrike Lessig, who opened their apartments in September of 2015 to the large surge of Syrian and Afghan people who were homeless and suffering from the failures of the German government and their response to accepting this influx of refugees. From this nightmare situation, Be an Angel e.V. was born as an organization and provided housing, food, access to medicine and most importantly, legal representation to give refugees what they were entitled to. Since these difficult struggles, the Be an Angel team continuted to grow and expand by increasing the number of volunteer lawyers for legal representation, expanding the network and providing basic aid and housing. The team continued to grow in strenght and numbers, eventually being able to launch a restaurant which is entirely managed and operated by refugees within the context of a restaurant and event management apprenticeship program, as well as provided aid and meals in extremely difficult environments such as the refugee situation in Belgrade and Moria. Be an Angel still provides educational and legal assistance for refugees in Germany, primarly in Berlin, to this day.
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Be an Angel network as shifted their focus to providing evacuation routes from Ukraine to the European Union and USA as well as providing humanitarian aid to IDP camps and hospitals. The partnership between the founder of Be an Angel, Andreas Tölke, and the birth of Friends of Be an Angel, launched by Anya Verkhovskaya, arised from the shared value in love and self-sacrifice to protect refugees and those most vulnerable and affected by war and tragedy. This partnerhsip has given the stepping stones to expanding the Be an Angel network to across the Atlantic Ocean, thereby opening horizons and opportunites with US-american networks.
Since then, the Be an Angel network has expanded to the capital of Moldova, Chisinau, as well as opening a new office in Odesa, our primary city of operations in the south-east of Ukraine. The majority of the evacuations conducted by our teams have been from the cities of Mykolaiv and Kherson, which were heavily contested areas prior to the winter of 2022. Since then, our operations have focused on reconstruction efforts, medical evacuations and other complex avenues to assisting the Ukrainian people.
Below is a map of the location of our headquarters and the countries we have both helped and operated within. Please use the social media links or our contact page if you want to reach out to one of our teams.
Our Values
The methodology on how we implement our strategies, how we treat and where we treat are fundamental to our success and ability. For this vital and complex understanding of our foundation, we invite you to click here to understand more about these values.
Humanitarian Aid
Refugees & IDPs
Mental Health Program
