While Ukraine is being attacked, cities destroyed and people lives torn apart, the event community members in Ukraine have turnt their lives upside down and since day one focuses on volunteering and providing necessary support to their people. Showing a great example, in an open letter they are inviting the industry colleagues all over the world to spread their message and encourage people to help Ukraine.
As of March 30, 2022:
- 4.06 million people who have fled Ukraine
- 6.5 millions of internally displaced people
- 12 million people who remain in flashpoint areas
War has two fronts, one is the military and the second one is humanitarian. From the very first days, part of the Ukrainian event community combined their efforts and created a crisis volunteer headquarters to coordinate the daily evacuation of about 60,000 people through the Lviv railway station.
"We are agencies, leaders and industry professionals, who have come together to do what we do best, i.e. solve crisis issues, organize and systematize processes. This initiative is supported by the government authorities, particularly by Lviv Regional Military Administration," reads the letter.
In the letter the event community shares the main struggles and what solutions and actions they are taking. The work is aimed at solving the following problems that exist in the sphere of humanitarian aid:
1. Chaotic and irregular supplies and demands;
2. Low level of trust in self-created volunteer movements;
3. Losses and thefts at all stages of transportation of humanitarian goods.
For this purpose, volunteers have:
1. Created an extensive network of Local Coordinators (representatives of the event industry), who maintain work with proven organizations in flashpoint areas;
2. Organized a hub warehouse at the Lviv railway station to enable shipments of goods across Ukraine by rail;
3. Established the stockkeeping of humanitarian goods arriving at the warehouse;
4. Created reporting standards for incoming humanitarian goods and their distribution.
"We respectfully address the leaders of the international event community, representatives of event agencies and related organizations, and relevant associations. We ask you to communicate with your clients, government officials, NGOs in order to mobilize all forces and to support Ukraine," encourage Ukrainian event community.
They suggest three possible ways how to give support:
1. Send your donations to our NGO Volunteer Hundred. All funds will be spent to satisfy humanitarian needs in the affected areas. We guarantee public reporting and accounting.
2. Send your financial support for the Volunteer Hundred team (representatives of the event industry) who manage processes free of charge and have lost their jobs and means of subsistence.
3. Send humanitarian goods in the categories of Food, Hygiene, Medicines to our warehouse in Lviv for their further distribution and shipment to the flashpoint areas of Ukraine. We can provide a detailed list of current needs upon request.
The community members main goal is to build an effective system of humanitarian aid with the involvement of representatives of the event industry and to ensure the transparency and proper use of donor resources.
The open letter concludes with the following words: "We will optimize the time and money expenditures and to provide, upon request, a green corridor for crossing the border, as well as our own transport for the transportation from border warehouses of the European countries. We also have the opportunity to provide fuel in Ukraine for carriers who deliver goods directly to our warehouse in Lviv.
We look forward to comprehensive communication, financial and humanitarian assistance from the event community, the public, and all public organizations that recognize the illegal actions of Russia and their catastrophic consequences for the population of Ukraine who continues to die from the military offensive and food shortages."
