A wave of solidarity with both the refugees and the people of Ukraine is underway, and many practical initiatives have been launched in the last two weeks, many of which came from the players in our industry. The longer the war lasts, the clearer it becomes that only specific product donations are needed as logistics become more complicated. Currently, charity organizations preferably call for financial support to be able to purchase the necessary supplies on site.
On the newly formed charity platform Sport4ukraine, founded by Siegbert Müller, managing director of Outtra, donations to help people in need in the wake of the war in Ukraine are collected. The project is supported by the organizations BSI, VDS, SAZsport, Sport 2000, and companies Alpenstrand, Chillaz, Ortlieb, Bergfreunde, Devold, Dynafit, Vaude and many others. The partnering brands, retailers, associations, publishers and other participants from the sports industry will double the donations made through the website: With a donation of €100, Sport4ukraine donates another €100 to the organizations. The funds go to organizations such as Aktion Deutschland hilft, the German Red Cross, the UNHCR (The UN Refugee Agency) or Caritas Austria. In a statement by the BSI, the association says: “Many members of BSI e.V. and the sporting goods industry as a whole also have relatives or partners in Ukraine who have been massively affected by these armed conflicts. In addition to the desire for a quick end to the fighting, our main priority is to support the people in Ukraine.”
Vaude has also called for donations to Save the Children International, doubling all incoming funds until the end of March 2022 to an amount of €10,000.
Swiss brand Exped has already donated mats and sleeping bags from its stock valued at €40,000 and is just organizing the production of synthetic sleeping bags in Europe to speed up things. €150,000 is needed to start production, which is why Exped is looking for partners to financially support the project (via LinkedIn, among other channels).
German event organizer My Race Result has started a fundraising run until April 10 that collects all entry fees for the war victims in Eastern Europe.
Besides supply and money, thousands of refugees are forced to settle down and make a living in new places. To help with this, www.jobaidukraine.com, an initiative for Ukrainian refugees was started by the German initiative Händler helfen Händlern (“retailers help retailers”) as a free-of-charge job portal for people in search of work. So far, not only jobs in Germany but also remote jobs and on-site jobs in Poland are on the list that is filling up with high speed.
Photo: Karollyne Hubert on Unsplash
