Early March 2022, only days after Russian troops launched their attack on Ukraine, a couple of us couldn’t stand still just watching the news. Our urgent drive to act made us pack up, rent a camper and launch within two days. We called our little group “Activersity”. At the time, this project was not embedded in our parent NGO yet.
What made us go to Ukraine to help instead of donating ?
(1) Donating to a large organization which has its own means and goals is okay, but it’s not the same as being on the ground, adapting in real-time to the problems developing around you.
(2) The bravery demonstrated by ordinary Ukrainians, their willingness to perform functions that their government cannot perform – is a model of civil society that should inspire those of us who are trained to let large institutions operate society for their own purposes.
(3) Ukrainians were grateful for the boots we sent them, but it is with some despair that they observed that the boots were empty; Ukrainians must battle one of the world’s largest armies on their own. Seeing our little camper van — the various nationalities we represented — meant a great deal to them, and they never let us forget. Any material aid that we could provide was over-shadowed by the moral support our mere presence provided.
Why did we go self-organized instead of with an organization?
We went to provide support that NGOs were not at the time capable of providing. For example, medicine and cold-weather equipment were badly needed, but the long waits at the border were tying up trucks and drivers. Another example was that refugees had driven from the East, some journeys taking five or six days – only to find themselves in border queues 10-30 kilometers long, in sub-zero temperatures. Here there was a need for hot food and drinks that no single organization was able to provide, but it was getting addressed by self-organized volunteers.
What did we do and how did we finance the trip?
We first went thinking, in the worst case, we’d go at our own private expense, in the best, we’d acquire donations to cover the travel costs during the trip. We immediately started reporting on instagram and TikTok and were able to acquire lots of donations. The more we reported, the more donations came in. We came to realise that people were happy to know and see exactly where the money was going, and were willing to donate more and invite their friends and family to support the cause. With the extra money we started buying supplies that local volunteers told us were urgently needed – mostly humanitarian supplies, but also practical equipment Ukrainians needed to defend themselves. For about 10 days, we were driving between Lviv and some cities at the border in Poland, back and forth. Every time, taking refugees to Poland, shopping in Poland with the received donations, and taking the supplies back to Lviv.
What stayed in our minds
In Poland, we discovered a college that had converted its sports center into a distribution center. Teachers and students worked tirelessly to sort donations and get them on trucks to take them where they were needed. These were Poles, not Ukrainians. The idea that people could just drop their ordinary lives, and work together to address an international problem – how inspiring is that? It makes you wonder what other problems we could solve that way.
The Activersity was born
From then on, the idea of transforming our NGO into a more activism centered one became more and more solid. The old NGO had lost stamina during the pandemic. We changed our NGO’s constitution to serve this new purpose. Finally, by the end of 2023, we were officially the new non-profit and registered “Activersity e.V.” with new official purposes: political education, ecology, culture and aid for youth and children.