Humanitarian Aid

The Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and subsequent war represents a serious violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity, as well as a breach of the UN Charter. This aggression has resulted in numerous breaches of international humanitarian and human rights laws. Moreover, it has triggered the largest displacement and refugee crisis in Europe since 1945 and has presented a significant contemporary challenge to global peace, with far-reaching consequences in both regional and worldwide contexts.

From February 24, 2022, to February 24, 2023, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documented 21,293 civilian casualties, including 4,457 women and 1,441 children killed or injured. However, the actual figures are likely much higher, as obtaining accurate information from conflict zones and areas of intense hostilities remains challenging, and many reports are still awaiting confirmation. The extensive destruction of urban areas and civilian infrastructure has rendered life unbearable for millions of people and has severely disrupted essential services. Presently, at least 17.6 million individuals require humanitarian assistance, with over 13.5 million people having been displaced from their homes, representing more than a quarter of the population. Of these, more than 8.1 million remain as refugees in neighboring countries, while 5.35 million are internally displaced within Ukraine.

To alleviate the grave circumstances of the Ukrainian civilian population, Friends of Be an Angel has taken on the challenging task of providing humanitarian aid to community centers, refugee camps, points of invincibility, hospitals, and internally displaced person (IDP) camps. The terrorist attacks by the Russian armed forces has left a wake of destruction to critical civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, power stations, and water treatment plants. To add further complexity to the situation, roads and primary transportation routes in many parts of the country are still mined, under occupation or under attack, making the logistical situation for humanitarian aid deliveries dangerous and extremely risky.

To navigate these extremely dangerous scenarios, Friends of Be an Angel works together with Women’s Movement for the Future, a nation-wide non-governmental organization (NGO) consisting of tens of thousands of volunteers and dozens of local charities. Lead by former member of Parliament and current representative of children, youth and family to the Ombudsman’s Office of Human Rights, Iryna Suslova, Friends of Be an Angel and Women’s Movement for the Future operates a humanitarian aid distribution hub in L’viv, Ukraine. Friends of Be an Angel focuses on the acquisition and transportation of humanitarian supplies from the United States or European Union into Ukraine, while Women’s Movement for the Future focuses on the distribution and logistics within Ukraine.

Through this partnership, we quickly identify critical areas of need and have made the decision to focus our humanitarian efforts on four focus areas. The first and primary focus area is on care packages for IDPs and other particularly vulnerable members of the civilian population, including those who are most impacted by the severely deteriorating economic situation or those who have lost their homes as a direct result of aggression from the Russian Federation. For example, one of our care package programs focuses directly on single mothers who have lost their partner to frontline combat. These women are particularly vulnerable because in many parts of the country, daycares, schools, and kindergartens are no longer operational and women are forced to stay home to take care of their children. This puts them in a particularly vulnerable economic situation where they require humanitarian assistance to sustain their families. Every month, we mail out approximately 3,000-5,000 care packages using the local postal service directly to families suffering from these economic barriers.

In addition to individual mail care packages, we provide large scale assistance to IDP camps, community centers and charities who deliver supplies to villages affected by frontline operations. We deliver hundreds of tons of foods and other important supplies to these locations.

Through our close relationship with the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America (UMANA), we also provide large-scale shipments of medicine and medical supplies directly to hospitals located throughout Ukraine.