Ukraine Relief Fund

We continue to support, and you can still help

The war in Ukraine is still raging, with devastating consequences for the civilian population. The longer the war continues, the medium- and longer-term needs will grow as the Ukrainian people seek to rebuild their lives and their country with sustained support from the humanitarian and international community.

We want to continue to helping the most vulnerable Ukrainians to get through this winter and beyond, but also begin looking ahead to support medium to long-term sustainable recovery initiatives.


Fund continues to raise donations

Our UBS Optimus Foundation continues to collect donations to distribute to effective relief and recovery initiatives via our vetted partner organizations on the ground.

We are matching all donations to the UBS Ukraine Relief Fund by 10%. That means that together as an international community, we can continue to create an impact to help the most vulnerable communities and people.

Recognition

We are very proud to share that our work with the Ukraine Relief Fund was recognized by the Money Management Institute / Barron’s Industry Awards 2022. Now in its 14th year, the awards recognize innovation and leadership in the investment advisory solutions industry.


What has been done so far?

The Ukraine Relief Fund has so far raised USD 58.4 million thanks to the generosity of more than 10,000 clients and 12,000 employees, including the help of our matching partner XTX Markets. Your support is helping people access emergency support like survival supplies, and healthcare. We’re currently working with local partners to support families and communities rebuild while continuing our strategy to provide mental health support and education as well as protecting vulnerable children and their caregivers.

USD 42 million has already been committed for relief and recovery efforts and the rest will go to longer term recovery and resilience programs. UBS Optimus Foundation is focused on supporting grassroots organizations directly or through intermediaries where possible, 170 and counting, to ensure as much funding as possible is reaching local Ukrainian organizations that have been working in their communities for some time and will continue to do so.

Learn more

about our support and the work of two of our partners, Teach for Ukraine and NGO Girls, through the Monocle podcast “Ukraine Relief Fund – one year on”.


Partners we recommend

Here are some of the partners that we are working with*:

Maintaining education continuity

Street Child (Ukraine)

Street Child works with local NGOs to ensure every child has access to an education. Street Child has a base of carefully selected education partners in Ukraine who’ll work in the coming months to build resilience in the education response for internally displaced people (IDP) through psychosocial support for 10,000 IDP children, summer camp-style informal education, and access to education for 2,580 children through education hubs where children can not only access online learning with teacher support but also attend catch-up classes to close their gaps in learning.

Street Child (Moldova)

Street Child is partnering with the Moldovan Government to ensure access to essential early education for refugee learners from Ukraine whilst expanding access to equitable, quality early education for early learners from Moldova and Ukraine; generate real-time evidence to inform early education expansion plans of the Government of Moldova as anticipated in the 2030 Moldova Strategy and leverage real-time evidence to engage and expand global evidence on early education in emergencies.

War Child Holland

War Child Holland is active in 19 countries where children live with the effects of armed conflict, specializing in child protection, education and psychosocial support. 

War Child Holland’s Can’t Wait to Learn offline self-paced educational game – accessed on tablets – helps to guide children through government-approved curricula in math and reading, grade 1 to grade 4.

A grant will help War Child Holland adapt their program to the context of the Ukrainian crisis, in the language of users and based on the national Ukrainian curriculum, with the aim to benefit 40,000 children. In collaboration with partner organizations, the program will be embedded locally and maintained on the ground.

Teach for Ukraine

Teach for Ukraine is a partner in the global Teach for All network, spanning more than 60 countries on six continents. The organization engages the best graduates and young professionals from diverse backgrounds to teach for two years in Ukraine’s rural high-need schools. Teach for Ukraine is launching a 6- to 8-week tech-enabled tutoring program to provide learning and psychosocial support to Ukrainian students in grades 5 through 10 who are out of school because of the war. Existing evidence shows that high dosage small group tutoring involving one-on-one or small-group instruction is one of the most versatile and potentially transformative educational tools today.

Approximately 2,800 adolescents will go through the program in small groups, receiving six one-hour sessions each week. Each group is assigned three tutors who have specific training to deliver academic content and additional training on providing psychosocial support to students, which comprises a quarter of the tutoring time. World Health Organization (WHO) continues its close coordination with the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and other health emergency organizations to deliver support to populations in Ukraine and neighboring countries. WHO will help ensure the strained Ukrainian health system can continue to offer the population access to vital healthcare. This will be accomplished by providing operational support for hospitals and health facilities, coordinating the deployment of emergency medical teams, delivering lifesaving medical supplies, supporting referrals for patients within Ukraine or in the European Union, and coordinating the global health.

Protecting vulnerable children

Lumos

Lumos has been supporting the government in Ukraine to reform the institutional care system to better protect vulnerable children and prevent family separation. Around 100,000 children are currently trapped in orphanages across Ukraine; the invasion by Russian forces means more children are now in danger. 

Lumos aims to protect as many children as they can by providing emergency food, hygiene and medical kits, and by helping to support their evacuation.

Lumos has been working extensively in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine, which lies between an invading force and the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. In Zhytomyr alone, there are over 1,500 children trapped in orphanages and thousands more are now at risk of displacement and family separation.

Hope and Homes for Children

Hope and Homes for Children was born out of the Balkans conflict 30 years ago and is an organization uniquely placed in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. They are using their resources, skills and expertise to protect children and families right now, and in the aftermath of this war.

Over 100,000 children remain warehoused in Ukraine’s orphanage system – in a network of over 700 buildings and the vulnerability of the children is increasing by the day. As fighting intensifies and curfews and migration increase, staff are fleeing. Large numbers of children are being left to face the dangers of war, alone. Hope and Homes for Children are working on providing practical, life-saving support through cash transfers and direct interventions including supporting the evacuation of abandoned children, where safe and appropriate to do so, getting them to safe centres with trained social workers. They are also helping families in rural areas get access to food, water and protection.

In neighbouring countries Moldava and Romania, they are working with governments and international organizations to ensure the safe reception and protection of refugee, unaccompanied and separated children from Ukraine. Keeping siblings together, away from child traffickers or out of orphanages, and instead pushing for emergency foster care and family reunification are absolute priorities.

CIVIC

Civic has been a vital and unique player in the protection-of-civilians movement for almost two decades across more than ten countries. CIVIC collaborates with civilians to bring their protection concerns directly to those in power, engages with armed actors to reduce the harm they cause to civilians, and advises governments and multinational bodies on how to make lasting policy changes. CIVIC has been present in Ukraine since 2017, working directly with local communities and assisting the Ukrainian government and Armed Forces of Ukraine to build capacity to protect civilians. With a focus on areas at risk of escalation and newly liberated areas in Ukraine, CIVIC aims to reduce harm to civilians through promoting community self-protection and effective civil-military engagement.

Supporting health and psychosocial services

Americares

Americares has been supporting the health sector in Eastern Europe since 1986, and since 1992 has provided more than $120m in aid to Ukrainians. In response to the current crisis, Americares plans to work with Ministries of Health and local health organizations to provide health-focused humanitarian aid for Ukrainians both inside Ukraine and those taking refuge in neighboring countries.

Americares will focus support on the following three areas:

  • Medicine security: support the international sourcing and distribution of critically needed medicine and medical supplies to partners in Ukraine and countries across Eastern Europe.
  • Emergency medical teams: support provision of primary health and mental health services at the community level while the health system is overwhelmed with patients, including provision outpatient emergency care of injuries and other significant health care needs
  • Mental health and psychosocial support: support access to basic mental health services for individuals experiencing distress during the conflict by training local health workers and other professionals (e.g., emergency responders, social workers, etc.) in providing community-based mental health and psychosocial support services, including psychological first aid.

Project HOPE

Project HOPE is providing primary health services, mental health and psychosocial support, and pediatric care to internally displaced persons in Ukraine as well as refugees in neighboring countries.

A grant will support Project HOPE in continuing to ensure displaced Ukrainians in Ukraine, Moldova, Poland and Romania have access to essential health services and psychosocial support.

Project HOPE has a long history in the region and first began working in Ukraine in 2002 on drug use prevention, HIV prevention and education for children in primary schools.

International Rescue Committee Germany

International Rescue Committee Germany provides tools and support for the successful integration and resettlement of refugees. In Germany, IRC will help mitigate the risk of long-term negative effects on refugee children’s development, mental health and psychosocial wellbeing by supporting early childhood development (ECD) providers with skills and techniques to help children. 

The Healing Classrooms methodology has been evaluated in several countries and there is promising evidence of impact on the psychosocial wellbeing of children affected by conflict. IRC will train 700 ECD providers to support newly arrived refugee children in their social-emotional development, provide them with age- and language-appropriate learning opportunities, and engage with their families in a trauma-informed way.

Crown Agents

Crown Agents is at the forefront of the Ukraine crisis, procuring and delivering critical, life-saving medical goods and equipment to support and protect the most vulnerable who are impacted by the conflict. As a partner of the Ukrainian government for over 25 years, Crown Agents knows the country’s health landscape and has links to distribution networks.

A grant will help them procure and deliver first aid kits and other equipment and critical supplies requested by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health.

Addressing urgent and emergency needs

International Rescue Committee

Building on IRC's existing presence in Poland, IRC is working with local partners and the Polish authorities to stand up response centers for Ukrainian refugees fleeing to Poland. IRC will ensure that these refugees have their basic needs met through the provision of hygiene kits, cash assistance, and psychosocial support. Cash assistance—through vouchers that can be used at local markets—allows displaced families to buy essential goods including food.

IRC will deliver life-saving information through its suite of digital tools that provide up-to-date information in multiple languages on legal rights and documentation, accommodation, transportation, medical care and more to people who are in transit or starting life in a new country.

IRC is also working with local partners in Ukraine itself, within the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on the eastern edge of the country, to quickly mobilize emergency support for families, such as economic assistance, survival supplies, and protection services for civilians who have been forced to flee their homes.

UNICEF

UNICEF works with governments, UN agencies, civil society organizations and national networks to ensure humanitarian, programmatic and advocacy support for children and their families staying in refugee hosting countries. A grant will support UNICEF in their efforts to provide millions of women and children in Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Slovakia with healthcare, mental health, psychosocial support and education. UNICEF’s Blue Dot centers, established in partnership with UNHCR and other partners, are providing safe spaces for children and families and connect them to critical information and services. 

World Health Organization (WHO)

World Health Organization (WHO) continues its close coordination with the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and other health emergency organizations to deliver support to populations in Ukraine and neighboring countries. WHO will help ensure the strained Ukrainian health system can continue to offer the population access to vital healthcare. This will be accomplished by providing operational support for hospitals and health facilities, coordinating the deployment of emergency medical teams, delivering lifesaving medical supplies, supporting referrals for patients within Ukraine or in the European Union, and coordinating the global health response in Ukraine and neighboring countries.

DePaul

Depaul International is the leading global agency specializing in homelessness. Depaul, already working in Ukraine since 2007, is providing critical assistance to 2,255 at-risk children and family members. Depaul’s approach is holistic—providing a combination of housing support, cash assistance, and psychosocial support.

Funding, mentoring and coaching for grassroots NGOs

Global Fund for Children (GFC)

The Global Fund for Children (GFC) has been offering support since the first week of the crisis and continues to scale its response across the region by supporting 37 grassroots organizations: 30 in Ukraine and another 7 along the Ukrainian border in Moldova and Romania.

The GFC has a long history of supporting child-focused grassroots organizations in the region and in particular Ukraine. 

Due to those connections, the GFC has been able to quickly mobilize support to local organizations targeting vulnerable children, youth and families that are providing immediate humanitarian assistance on the ground in Ukraine. 

Flexible funding over the coming months will allow GFC partners to provide humanitarian assistance, including food, safe shelter, transportation, medicine, evacuation support, psychosocial assistance and educational access. 


Maximize your impact

  • Knowing where to give can be overwhelming; with our long-established partnerships, you benefit from grantees carefully pre-vetted by our team of experts.
  • The flexible nature of the Fund allows us to respond quickly as the situation changes, so we can share donations to other vetted partners if such a need arises.
  • We diligently track progress and share regular feedback.

With a gift to the UBS Optimus Foundation Ukraine Relief Fund, you could support thousands of people in immediate need. And to maximize your impact, UBS will add 10% to employee and client donations.

Our aim is to:

  • Mobilize emergency support for Ukrainian families, such as economic assistance, survival supplies, and protection services for civilians who have been forced to flee their homes.
  • Provide health-focused humanitarian aid for Ukrainians both inside Ukraine and those taking refuge in neighboring countries by sourcing and distributing critically needed medicine, deploying emergency medical teams and support access to basic mental health services.
  • Protect vulnerable children and their caregivers in Ukraine trapped in orphanages to provide emergency food, hygiene and medical kits and supporting the evacuation of children, particularly those with physical or mental disabilities.

How to give during a humanitarian crisis

To learn more from our experts about how to react thoughtfully and effectively with your philanthropy through the giving cycles of humanitarian crises, download the full guide.

In times of need, one of the most effective ways of giving for maximum impact is collectively. Would you like to connect and exchange with other philanthropists and changemakers? If so, ask your client advisor about joining our Global Philanthropists Community.

Learn more about emergency philanthropy and UBS:

More questions?

Please get in touch!

Ask your UBS Client or Financial Advisor or send us an email choosing your local UBS Optimus Foundation representative office