Helping Ukrainians On The Ground, One Family At A Time

Six months into Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine, various large and small humanitarian organizations provide much-needed assistance to Ukraine as the Ukrainian people fight an unprovoked, brutal war. The provision of medical supplies, military aid, and other support on a large-scale is crucial.

However, smaller nonprofits bring direct relief to Ukrainians. One of them, Boston-based organization Cash For Refugees (CFR), identifies Ukrainians displaced by war and gives them much needed financial assistance.

At least 12 million Ukrainian people have fled their homes since Russian forces rolled across the nation’s borders, according to a United Nations report. More than five million have left for neighboring countries, while 6.6 million people are still thought to be displaced inside Ukraine itself. Overall, more than 10 million border crossings from Ukraine and 4.7 million crossings to Ukraine have been registered since February 24. About 5,500 civilians have been killed, among them almost 400 children. All these disrupted lives need continuous help.

What makes Cash For Refugees different is its unique hands on approach. The organization doesn’t just provide money to all Ukrainians who apply, it meets people in person to make sure they are the ones in greatest need of help.

Founded by Natasha and Semyon Dukach in February 2022, CFR has collected $1.8 million in donations since its inception. Natasha recently received a master’s degree in public health from Boston University, and Semyon is a successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Both Eastern European immigrants to the US, the founders combined their unique skills to help in a very hands-on manner. With the efficiency of a startup and without the bureaucracy of a large non-profit, CFR donates 95% of raised funds directly to people displaced by the war, which go to people’s daily needs.

So far, CFR has helped over 12,000 Ukrainian families, which is approximately 27,000 people – including children – and have doled out a total $1.25 million. Their mission has attracted many donors, among them Liev Schreiber, a filmmaker, an active supporter of Ukraine and founder of BlueCheck aid network.

During the first weeks of the war, CFR helped refugees who crossed the border from Ukraine to Romania; mostly women with children, thousands of them at the border checkpoints. Natasha Dukach described long lines of refugees, trying to cross the border in the freezing cold of March. CFR volunteers saw many tragic things, such as a woman whose baby froze to death as she waited for over 12 hours to clear customs.

As the war continued, Cash For Refugees’ efforts moved inside Ukraine to help refugees travel from the war-ravaged East to the safer Western portion of Ukraine. Over the past several months, CFR set up an operation in Chernivtsi, in Western Ukraine, where the organization cooperated with local authorities to collect data and catalog refugees before handing out money.

“Cash For Refugee volunteers are under enormous psychological pressure,” explains Dukach, the founding director of CFR. It’s not easy to listen to the stories of displaced Ukrainians, as they are trying to show they qualify for assistance.

US volunteers from the East and the West coasts travel to Ukraine, cross the border, putting their lives at risk as Russian missiles strike all over Ukraine, and identify those in dire need of help–a job that cannot be done remotely. They meet with Ukrainians in person, conduct interviews to determine who’s eligible to receive micro grants via credit cards or PayPal. These days, payouts are generally $100 per family with up to two children, plus an extra $30 for each additional child, special needs or disability, and $100 for seniors over 65, plus extra for disabilities.

“It sounds like a small amount but it pays for them to sleep in a safe place for a month,” Dukach says. “They say, ‘now we can look for jobs, and not think about paying rent in a shelter for a bed to sleep in.’” Sometimes they spend the money on food, but usually funds are spent on a bed in a shelter.

On days that CFR announces an open call on a local radio or at local shelters, Dukach estimates some 600 to 700 people show up at a meeting point–typically a local school. The team of four volunteers can assist 350 to 400 in one day.

The hardest part is hearing people’s stories. Simple questions like, “Where are you from?” Or “How many kids do you have?” don’t have simple answers.

Dukach remembers a woman in a shelter showing her three birth certificates, but only two kids remained alive. There was a mother who presented a child who had lost a leg, to prove the child was disabled because she did not obtain a disability certificate due to the war. A man under the age of 65, missing the age eligibility criteria by a few years, asked for money because his family–a wife and children–burned alive in a missile strike and, after he watched it with his own eyes, he had a stroke. A majority of people live for months in temporary housing–typically large rooms with rows of bunk beds, where they rent a bed for $100.

Deciding on who is first in line to get help is not an easy task. Often, volunteers have to crush hopes by rejecting unqualified candidates, though all need help.

After her eight shifts in Ukraine, Dukach highlights Ukrainian women as a vital part of Ukraine’s fight for victory. Although she was born just over the Ukrainian border in Russia, Dukach lived for over a decade in Ukraine studying violin at the Kharkiv Conservatory and settled in Kyiv area until she moved to the US in 2009. She recognizes the courage and determinations of Ukrainian women even when they are in the most vulnerable states.

There are now about 38,000 women in the Ukrainian army, with more than 5,000 at the front line, according to Hanna Malyar, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine. Include civilian women working for the armed forces to that tally and number gets closer to 50,000. According to Kseniya Draganyuk of the newly founded initiative, Zemlyachki, Ukraine had to quickly adopt military conditions and eliminate every-day difficulties for female military personnel, including supplying appropriate combat uniforms.

The ones who haven’t enlisted in the military contribute what they can to support the fight. They keep their spirits up, prepare woven camouflage nets, and take care of children and the elderly.

For Natasha Dukach, her husband Semyon and their fellow volunteers, the next shift in Ukraine is coming up in September. Who knows what they will see on the ground then; but the work must go on.

“Yes, war is pain, blood, fear and death,” says Dukach. “But the war for independence, which is what the war in Ukraine is, does not frame Ukrainian women as only helpless victims who need to be rescued. In fact, they often ask for weapons so they can join in the fight.”