"ElitExpert" continues the series of publications about the best humanitarian and volunteer organizations of Odesa region.
Anna Yermakova is the head of the "You Ukraine" charity movement. Before the war, she worked as a marketer and led large-scale projects in Odesa and Kyiv, and now she unites various volunteer organizations into a joint Hub — a modern and very effective mechanism for helping the entire south of the country.
— Tell us how you became a volunteer?
— I'm not entirely sure that it's called just volunteering, I think it's much more. We are engaged in communication, establishment of connections of our hub with European partners, with small funds formed in the hub. In general, I try to be as useful as possible and manage this wonderful hub at the same time.
— Which direction of aid did your foundation choose and why?
The directions of assistance are completely different, starting with work with displaced persons, ending with people who have fallen into difficult life circumstances due to the war.
We provide products to the displaced, try to help our farmers, save jobs and pay taxes so that the state has something to supplement the budget.
I would like to note that our direction is humanitarian, not military, because we mainly work with girls, we do not understand pistols, submachine guns, thermal imagers... Therefore, our humanitarian sphere is food products, including, of course, for the military - we help field kitchens, provide dry rations.
Another of our "chips" is medicine, we collect backpacks for paramedics and tactical first-aid kits, because we have doctors in our team. We also deal with mental health. We have a psychologist in our team, we conduct trainings, carry out adaptation of people affected by the war, including pregnant women and mothers with inclusive children.
— When did your organization start?
— The activity of the organization started back in 1992. This fund was one of the first to be established in Odesa after independence. At one time, the foundation provided free children's meals to schools and kindergartens in the city, then it was mainly engaged in the field of medicine, now, during the war, the foundation acquired a second lease of life, supplemented its philosophy.
— What was the most difficult thing for you in this job?
— For me, the most difficult thing is the impossibility of doing many processes at the same time. Delegation of authority is also difficult. But now the best team has gathered in the fund, I trust them completely, and therefore now the difficulties are more technical than moral. It is about the fact that it is becoming more and more difficult to get donations and humanitarian aid from abroad, people are getting tired of helping. That is why, for example, my last two weeks were spent in trips to five European countries to personally meet partners, to open new branches in order to establish trust. So that partners understand how our fund differs from others, why we can be trusted, because we show real work, and not just tell how great everything is.
— 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?
— Of course, there is always competition and it is not always correct. Sometimes people come to us who were told unpleasant things about us in other foundations, but after getting to know us and our work better, they change their opinion. And some funds send letters to all organizations that help Ukraine, where they write that their fund is the best, and others are stealing. At the same time, they even sometimes attach links to some scandalous articles from the Internet.
By the way, this is not always true, but I still think it is wrong to publicly air the dirty laundry of other foundations. We are responsible for ourselves, for our fund to become better every day.
In addition, we have a memorandum that we signed at the beginning of the war with small foundations and volunteer organizations that were just formed - we took them under our wings and help them. When humanitarian cargoes come to us, and at the same time there are small funds that have many applications, but cannot give anything to people, we always help. This can be seen by our acts of acceptance and transfer. Thus, the net and geography of aid becomes much larger.
— How can a potential donor check that a fund or volunteer organization is "clean"? What is important to know about charities in order not to transfer money to fraudsters?
- It's very simple. There is a single state register where you can find all the data: what is the form of the organization, does the fund pay taxes, is it a non-profit organization... In fact, you can build a website in two days and write there that you have the best fund in the world, draw any numbers But there is nothing behind it.
There are acts of acceptance and transfer, there is accounting, you can ask for information about the balance of the fund: what was accepted, what was transferred and to whom.
— If you had the opportunity to address each potential donor and benefactor personally, what is the most important thing you would say to him now?
— It is important to help. It is very important to feel responsible for the events that are happening in the world, even if it is not happening in your country. You must always remain human. We would be happy if there were more soulful and compassionate people on earth.
Help: https://www.youukraine.org/requisites/
To transfer funds in the national currency (hryvnias): Recipient: Public organization "Odesa Citizens Support Fund", EDRPOU Code: 19061398
Account number opened in AB" Southern": UA493282090000026006311750701, MFI: 328209, Purpose of payment: Charitable assistance
Social networks: Facebook, Instagram.
