Kseniya Prudyuss, Kristina Gren
Direct Aid Ukraine
Published on:
January 29, 2023
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Thanks for taking the time to sit with us to share your story with our readers. Can you start out by sharing a little bit about you and/or your organization, business, or project?
Direct Aid Ukraine delivers urgent medical aid to the front lines. We are a London-based team with families and friends in Ukraine. Our founding members work in the healthcare industry. We provide photo and video evidence of all aid purchases and deliveries to ensure our supporters have complete visibility of how funds are spent.
Everyone has a story about how they got started, what was the inspiration or the catalyst for you?
When the war started, we all sprang into action independently. We were going to protests in London, volunteering and donating, but this didn't feel like enough. Each of us wanted to help more tangibly. For us, the catalyst was our connection to Kseniya; she had the idea that we could all rally behind!
Kseniya works in the healthcare industry; she saw an opportunity to use her connections in UK and Ukraine to address medical shortages on the front lines. As Kseniya shared her idea with each of us, we saw an opportunity to support her and contribute in our own way.
Tell us about a time that you faced a challenging situation in your life, organization, business, or project. How did you find a solution, or over-come the challenge?
We were keen to support a group on the front lines in May. They requested particular items from well-known, high-demand brands. Unfortunately, these products were sold out in Europe and USA, with 3-6 months waiting periods for resupply.
Suddenly, one supplier told us they had the medical items. We were ecstatic! It sounded too good to be true, and it was. It transpired the supplier didn't have the right brands but alternatives made in China.
We needed to make a tough decision. Buy the China-made alternatives, which could be low quality, or tell the group we can't provide the requested items. We chose not to buy sub-quality products. It was difficult, and we felt like we let the team down, but it would have been irresponsible to spend money on low-quality products that could fail instead of saving a soldier's life at a crucial moment.
SHOP UKRAINIAN, BY UKRAINIANS, FOR UKRAINIANS
Running a business, an organization, a project is not always easy. What have your learned about yourself, about others along the way?
For us, the most significant learning was about the ebbs and flows of our energy as a team. We're all volunteers with jobs, studies and other responsibilities, and we must respect that.
We needed to accept that we can't all have equal time to dedicate to Direct Aid Ukraine. Sometimes members need to take a break, recoup their energy and then get back to running the projects.
As a team, we found that running campaigns as projects is better than having always-on initiatives. We can plan and use our energy better that way.
We've all had that one moment that makes what we are doing worth it all. Can you share with us a story about the moment that really impacted you and touched your heart?
We were asked to deliver an ambulance and medical supplies to Kharkiv in the summer. The local team asked us not to publicize this initially so as not to give away activity happening on the ground. Transparency is a core value for Direct Aid Ukraine, so this request didn't sit comfortably with us, but we understood and didn't publicize it.
In autumn, following the successful counter-offensive in Kharkiv we were delighted to tell our supporters that their donations helped local medics.
We also felt proud as a team. All those little things we did to raise money, coordinate aid etc., suddenly felt big. We could see that even the slightest effort does contribute to a bigger victory.
If you could go back in time and give your self some advice on how to manage your business, nonprofit, or project, what advice would you give?
You don't need to come up with solutions to everything yourself. Find a way to use the bigger structures around you and lean into available help.
Also, when something is not working out, no matter how much you want to help and to make it work, it might be kinder and better to accept it is not possible and move on to what is possible.
If a potential client, donor, partner were reading this article right now, what would tell them about you, your team to convince them to choose you?
Every life matters! Yet right now, preserving the lives of Ukrainian soldiers should be the number one priority. When we don't have defenders, we can't fight! Countries can give us more weapons; they can't give us more people! We deliver medical aid that helps save our brave defenders' lives.
What is one fact about you, your business, your nonprofit, your project that most people might not know?
100% of dentations made to us go toward medical aid. We can't stress this enough. Every penny given to us is spent on medical supplies for Ukraine.
Where do you see your business, nonprofit, project going in the next 3 or 5 years?
Honestly, we hope in 3 years, we no longer exist because Ukraine has won, and there will be no war! But we will be here for as long as medics on the Ukrainian front lines need support.
It was so great sitting with you to learn more about you. How can people find out more about you, your business, nonprofit, or project?
Check out our website - https://directaidukraine.co.uk
Visit our Just Giving Page to donate and see project updates - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Direct-Aid-Ukraine
Follow our Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/directaid.ukraine
Thank you so much for sharing your story with HiHelloUkraine Story!
Thanks you for giving us an opportunity to tell our story. Glory to Ukraine!
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Kseniya Prudyuss, Kristina Gren
Direct Aid Ukraine
Published on:
January 29, 2023
Follow on social media:
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