Help for Ukraine

Dear reader,

It has been far too long since we sent an update from our side. First, of course, our thoughts go to the gigantic tragedy by Russia in Ukraine. This is, of course, still completely incomprehensible to many. It is unimaginable that Russia just wants to completely destroy its neighbor, while the majority in both countries are very poor.

Ukraine IT frontrunner

Ukraine has always been very important to us: since 2012 we carry out our IT projects in Ukraine. The reason for this is that IT in Ukraine is light years ahead of that in the Netherlands and the majority of the population is much higher educated than in the Netherlands. Over the years I have made a huge number of acquaintances there. Many of them now work at the big tech companies, especially in Silicon Valley.

Super programmers

We are all super programmers from for example Zfort and Codica in Kharkiv and Velainn in Zaporizhzhya enormously grateful for all their good efforts. In addition, we work with various freelancers in Kyiv and Poltava. The calm and tenacity is undeniable because even if the Russians drop bombs on them, normal work continues. In comparison: half of the Netherlands is completely upset if Facebook is out for a while or has to put on a mouth cap. This Ukrainian tenacity and coolness is unprecedented and exemplary for the world.

Photo source: Twitter and https://www.patreon.com/UkrainianWitness

In the short term we want to a group of people (including Dutch, Ukrainian and Poles) drive with their own cars and a truck to Zhytomyr in Ukraine to offer help. If entering Ukraine is too dangerous, we will go to the border. On the way back we can of course take people with us to continue commuting up and down. We will probably collect goods from the following aid organizations, among others.

How can you support?

There are various organizations that do a great job to help the Ukrainians.

Self-drive: Utrecht – Polish/Ukrainian border is only 1500 km. If you drive on Thursday evening with a full car, you can easily and easily be back on Sunday (and refuel considerably cheaper in Poland). This is a small effort that can make a huge difference.

Living space: if you have spare living space, it would be great to offer this temporarily. There are various organizations that coordinate this, but this can also be done via: Airbnb directly via a special coordination from them.

breathcareforkids.com

Oekrainehashulpnood.nl

Holland-Ukraine

WHOE

Information sources:

Geert-Jan Hahn from BNR

Kyivpost

Red Cross Ukraine

UA Wire

Illia Ponomarenko

Defense Ukraine

Biz Ukraine

Telegram Свидетель Украины / Witness of Ukraine

Telegram Украина Сейчас: новости, война, Россия / Ukraine Now: news, war, Russia

We hope that this misery It will soon be over, but I fear that the humanitarian disaster could last for years.

Slava Ukraini / Long live Ukraine!
Kind regards,
Ronald Kok