Uniting for Humanitarian Action: Ukraine and Beyond, Two Years On

In 2022, while on a humanitarian mission to the Ukraine border, I met a Ukrainian family who narrowly escaped from Mariupol. With both their dreams and home destroyed, they moved to Israel, ready to begin again. More than 15,000 Ukrainians did the same – and then found themselves caught in another war.

While the fate of American support for Ukraine and Israel hangs in the balance of political election-year posturing, the commitment of ordinary citizen volunteers demonstrates the power of action in the face of repression.

Having hidden in a basement in Mariupol without water or electricity, once the sirens sounded in Israel, Sara and her three children, 14, 10 and 4, one with autism, never left the house. Terrorized by memories, Sara knew they had to leave – again. Last month marked two years since Russia’s attack on Ukraine and a decade since the Russian occupation of Crimea. While the fate of American support for Ukraine and Israel hangs in the balance of political election-year posturing, the commitment of ordinary citizen volunteers demonstrates the power of action in the face of repression.

Sara and her family left for Greece for a few months of peace with the help of some of the same networks that helped Ukrainian refugees move to Israel, including the UA Support Team (UAST). 

People out, supplies into Ukraine

UAST is a grassroots network linking 375 people across 20 countries in Europe, the United States and Israel to help Ukrainians survive and escape the war. Leveraging the collaborative efforts of these individuals and across the globe, UAST members provided safe evacuations for Ukrainians and delivered supplies where they were needed most. They connected individuals who were ill and injured to medical treatment, and found shelter for women, children, and elderly refugees.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Southern California civic strategist Shawn Landres started connecting people in his transatlantic network across Europe. “I didn’t want to deal with multiple siloed networks getting into Ukraine humanitarian work and missing opportunities because people didn’t know each other existed,” he recalled. 

The foundation of the UAST network is a secure, private communication platform that allows volunteers to contribute skills and resources. Early on, Landres set ground rules: Confidentiality, no solicitation, no fundraising, and no military aid. The network took swift actions, communicating through secure text-messaging apps and functional threads, such as Evacuations and Supplies and Logistics. Anyone wanting to join UAST needed an existing member to vouch for them and 24/7 moderation redirected off-topic messages. 

By late 2022, one UAST team that connected without ever meeting in person had evacuated 4,630 women and children from central and southern Ukraine. The same team delivered 392 pallets of food and 60 pallets of medicine and medical supplies to people, including Holocaust survivors, who had been isolated in or displaced from their homes. 

UAST volunteers have purchased and delivered power generators, sexual assault trauma kits, surgical tools, and cash transfers for safe evacuation and basic needs. 

As Ukrainian refugees spread throughout Europe, Israel and North America, UAST volunteers connected arrivals with local assistance, sometimes even housing them or helping them find jobs.

Pivoting quickly to assist in Israel

As a member, I have watched UAST move quickly and efficiently, first in Ukraine and later in Israel. Within hours of the Oct. 7 attacks, the first messages appeared on UAST from a Ukrainian activist asking if Israelis needed medical aid and supplies from abroad. Two days later, the network had created Israeli-focused subgroups to verify aid requests, arrange travel, and assist foreigners in crisis.

Working alongside and frequently in collaboration with large-scale institutional relief efforts, Landres noted, “We aren’t a network to raise money or raise anyone’s profile — we’re a network for getting the work done.” 

Footage Foundation co-founder Kristen Eglinton, an experienced humanitarian aid executive, said she quickly found “deep and sustainable partnerships and collaborations” through the network.

UAST was able to pivot quickly in response to Israel’s emergency needs through lessons learned from 18 months of prior work. “We had an existing cohort of experienced Israeli volunteer aid workers dedicated to Ukraine,” Landres said. “We knew we could quickly and effectively return that support.”

Two years into the expanded conflict, the Ukrainian government’s capacity to manage emergency medical and infrastructure needs has rebounded. UAST has shifted its attention to where needs remain. It did the same in Israel where Sara and her family received assistance to take their family to Greece for a few months. They now are back in Israel, where they continue to receive assistance to rebuild their lives. 

A new paradigm for humanitarian action

Many UAST volunteers, including Jeff Kaminsky of Chicago, joined the network because they couldn’t let these conflicts be someone else’s problem: “I asked myself: What can I do? I had to find a way or create a way to help,” Kaminsky explained.

UAST is one of many such networks of volunteers, and its story is relevant as a new paradigm for global humanitarian action. While other versions of the same operational model are increasingly common, including Maman, which also uses messaging groups to crowdsource volunteer assistance, UAST has remained unincorporated and does not fundraise for itself or others.

Larger international aid groups such as OLAM have cited UAST as a frequent collaboration partner on the humanitarian response in Ukraine. Project Kesher Ukraine’s Executive Director Vlada Nedak called UAST a “responsive and effective network of people,” noting “the ripple effect of such efforts is enormous.” 

It has been said that a single twig snaps easily, but not a bundle. These organizations and individuals couldn’t have the same impact alone. But by working together, pooling their skills and resources, they could achieve the impossible.

Wendy Gerber is Senior Partner, Brand Consulting for Kantar. She participated in a humanitarian mission to the Ukraine border in 2022 and is a member of the UAST Network. Gerber has written for numerous publications including the New York Daily News and Newsday.