ElitExpert continues the series of interviews with the heads of humanitarian and volunteer organizations of the Odesa region, who took part in the First Closed Charity Auction "Volunteer amulet».
Today we are talking to Yulia Fedorova, the head of the Trymai Charitable Foundation, a successful journalist from Odessa who, after the start of the full-scale war, began to engage in volunteer activities.
— What started your volunteering and the creation of a charity fund? How did you transition from journalism to philanthropy?
During the years of working in mass media, within the framework of various projects, starting from newspapers and ending with television, I always had the opportunity to help people and solve various problems. Journalism is a great strength and huge opportunities.
As soon as the full-scale war began, I created a Telegram chat “Mutual aid 7:40. Odesa". It seemed to me that it would be appropriate and useful, because everyone around had various questions - where to go, where to run, what to buy - there were a million requests and various discussions. Such help and communication even changed entire destinies. Thanks to our "7:40" chat, people had the opportunity to find answers to their questions and the necessary information, to help each other. This movement began to develop very quickly. A few days after I clicked the "create chat" button, I already had a small team of moderators. People from the same chat offered me help. People I never knew and never saw before. I agreed. And they are still with me. We are one team...
Then, in the same chat, I met many people who are still continuing our mission. My best friends are with me. We registered the charity fund "Keep" - and there are many more opportunities to help and be useful.
— Your fund has been running for two years now, you have achieved a lot, but how are you doing with sponsors?
We do not have any investors, sponsors, patrons. We work for free, purely on enthusiasm. Financing the life of the foundation is now a very acute problem for me personally.
We are looking for partners who can support us - a lot of money is spent on maintaining the fund... Holding one charity festival of such a scale as we do is a huge expense. We pull it all by ourselves. Accounting services, fuel, purchases of consumables - all this is money. In two years, we have organized more than 100 charity events - exclusively on our own and with our own funds.
If I had known then, at the very beginning, when creating the fund, how difficult it all is, I probably would not have gone for it. But this process takes a long time, you see the result, you see how it all works, and it is impossible to stop.
At our Support Days, we always try to help and make children happy: they exchange toys, books, and get some relief. We always have balloons, cotton candy and entertainment for children at our festivals. Their parents, who come to our events, always thank us - as if the war is over, and as if life goes on.
And when you look at thousands of people at our festivals, it's hard to say goodbye and put an end to it, although financially, I admit, it's difficult - especially lately. But it is no longer possible to stop everything, the hand does not rise.
— How do people find out about your events?
— We emphasized the development of social networks and the Telegram community as the main information platform. 12 thousand people in our mutual help chat. More than 17 are on our Telegram channel "7:40"... Word of mouth radio is still working. They talk and write about us. In addition, we are often supported by the media by placing our announcements.
Some people who came to our events to get help have already become volunteers. In fact, we managed to create a unique volunteer movement. Artists, animators, painters, musicians, confectioners, private businesses, large companies - we are supported by wonderful people. Just. We do good things together. If we ourselves bought what we give to people at our events, paid fees to artists, rented equipment, then every time we would spend tens, and sometimes hundreds of thousands of hryvnias.
Our Support Days and charity festivals take place in Gorky Park, whose administration always comes to meet us. We are very grateful to them.
— You mentioned that you recently faced a lack of funds...
— Yes, we really need partners. We have a huge number of plans and ready-made projects, but there is a critical lack of funding.
However, all independent funds have similar problems today. Recently, we have even been forced to refuse some kind of help, because we do not have the opportunity to collect it: there is no fuel, there are no cars, loaders, we do not have our warehouse...
We could do a lot more if there was some resource.
For example, for one of the festivals, we received from our partners a parcel with children's grocery sets worth half a million hryvnias. And 6800 hryvnias had to be spent on delivery. It seems like a small amount of money, but it also has to be taken somewhere...
And so on any point - for example, we were given 500 sets of sweets for children, but for them you need to buy 500 bags just to distribute to children. All these little things cost money.
Now we have come up with our volunteer food court - since funds are limited, we will cook and treat people ourselves for donating to the Armed Forces. But you still need to buy food, plates, forks, napkins, etc.
Grants are a difficult issue, we need specialists. Many people think that our Support Days are a grant project. But, unfortunately, this is not the case.
- How many volunteers are in your team?
There are about forty volunteers in the team, many of them immigrants. These are people who are always ready to work and help. For the past two years we've been doing our Support Days every Sunday, never missing a single one, it's a huge effort, and they're all free!
Each of our volunteers has a family, their work, their affairs, and I perfectly understand when someone burns out, gets tired and leaves. Everything is honest with us: I always say: "if suddenly you can't, you're tired, you can't cope - tell me right away. This is normal". In fact, I am very lucky to have met such people. My team is my pride. I value each person very much. Everything we have done is our joint merit. We know how to negotiate, support each other. We are not afraid to take risks and try. We are all very different, and in doing so we strengthen each other.
Olena Ovchinnikova spoke
