"ElitExpert" continues the series of publications about humanitarian and volunteer organizations of Odesa region. Today we are talking to one of the founders of the Trymai Charitable Foundation Yulia Fedorova, a successful Odessa journalist, who started volunteering after February 24.
Note that y public vote on the website of the National Rating Platform it is this young foundation that currently leads the ranking of the best humanitarian and volunteer organizations in the region.
— Tell us how you became a volunteer? What direction of help did you choose for yourself and why?
It all started with the "Mutual Help 7:40" chat. On the third day of the war, February 26, we created this Telegram group so that people could find each other and help in a difficult situation. Within a week, the chat turned into a community of several hundred people who constantly communicated with each other and supported each other: they brought food, medicine, helped to get to Odessa, or looked for equipment for a friend who went to serve. Then sponsors from various countries began to come: Germany, Poland, Australia, Israel, etc. They helped with donations.
The idea behind the chat was that people who want to help and people who need help find each other. It was this chat that later became a charitable foundation "Hold on". Now the 7:40 chat is just one of the fund's projects.
To be honest, we had no plans to expand. But since there were more and more of us, we decided to go to a new level. The fund is only a few months old. Now there are almost 11 thousand people in the chat, and it is constantly growing.
Who do we help? The list is long: these are our defenders, immigrants, single mothers, large families, elderly people, homeless animals, shelters. During this time, we have helped several thousand people.
— That is, the chat was not enough for you, and you decided on more?
Exactly. Help was getting more and more, as were the people who needed support. More help means more responsibility. More people, more questions. We realized that we want to work officially and transparently and it's time to scale up. That's why the "Mutual Help 7:40" chat team created the charity fund "Keep".
Currently, the "Keep" team has more than 20 volunteers. Demolition foreman, DJ, digital marketer, sales representative, real estate expert, journalist and many more people.
We are actually all very different. Thanks to our perseverance, we manage to scale the business, the circle of support is constantly growing.
— What was the most difficult thing for you in this job?
The most difficult thing is when there is a request, but there is no money. It is very difficult to say no to people who really need help.
It is difficult to let the stories of the people who come to us pass through. For example, a family lived in Severodonetsk, they had a shop, everything was wonderful. But because of the war and constant shelling, they went to Odesa with their child. Now they live in a rented apartment and do not know what is going on with the house and the store. But they really want to return.
Or a doctor from Kherson - he worked there in a wonderful clinic, and then he left for Odessa, and the Russians took all his money from him at a roadblock. Meanwhile, he is already here helping a woman in Odesa recover from a stroke.
People were left without everything: without relatives, without a home, without things, without what they had saved for years, without cars and jobs. How can you not help after such stories? We must help people settle in a new city, make it easier for them to get started. They all want to return to their peaceful home afterwards.
— There is an opinion that in the volunteer environment there are games under the rug, competition and intrigue. How do you get out of this situation if you are faced with a similar one?
I don't know about the competition, but we constantly encounter plagiarism. This is very unpleasant.
In any case, our position is clear - we do not intend to participate in any "wars" and conspiracies, and we maintain friendly relations with all volunteers. In this short time, we have already managed to find partners among the funds and we are always open to cooperation.
— How to verify to a potential donor that the fund or volunteer organization is clean? What is important to know about charities in order not to transfer money to fraudsters?
We advise you to check information about funds in official sources, but the most important are reports and reviews. Objective and honest reviews from real recipients of aid, clear and transparent reports for each specific period are a guarantee of the fund's honesty. It will also not be superfluous to first observe the activities of the fund and understand whether the values, goals and mission of each specific fund and its manager are close to the person personally.
— Which foundations and volunteer organizations do you work closely with, if any?
Yes, these are the "You Ukraine" Foundation, the "New Life" mission, the NGO "Outpost of Ukraine", the BF "Confident in the Future", the NGO "Special Youth", the European foundation for Ukraine, the NGO "Phlogiston Team", the BF "Intellectuals" .
— If you had the opportunity to address each potential donor, philanthropist personally, what is the most important thing you would say to him now?
We would invite him to our Day of Support for Immigrants and to our excursions with children from Mariupol, Mykolaiv, Bakhmut. You don't even need to say anything here, the person will understand everything by himself.
In fact, we don't have any investments or big sponsors, nobody is behind us and we try to look for opportunities at every step.
If we all together now help the army and the Ukrainians in all directions, it will bring our Victory closer.
For everyone who wants to help the "Keep" Charitable Foundation:
Details: PrivatBank 5169335100596184
IBAN: UA863052990000026006044919831
