Since the Ukrainian Crisis began, I found myself pondering again why the world did not rally to help and support the millions affected by the atrocities caused by Nazi Germany. For myself and others, the Ukrainian Crisis, like other past wars and natural disasters, became yet another wake-up call. Many of us have supported other campaigns and causes where women and children have been upended from their homes and forced into becoming refugees. This time we decided to launch our own campaign called, The Digital Education Emergency Relief Initiative, otherwise know as DEERI. Our campaign brings together individuals that have experience working with refugees from Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan and Yemen. Members of our volunteer team have experience working with some of the leading international relief organizations including UNESCO and the International Relief Committee. We are providing support for Women and Children through the following areas:
- Laptops and tablets for children between the ages of 5 to 17 through hardware donations made by institutions in the US.
- Access to Ukrainian digital content and curriculum along with virtual tutors to support continuity of learning.
- Trauma support through a worldwide network of virtual therapists.
Areas of Support
- All donated laptops and tablets must be evaluated to ensure they are in working condition, each unit must be sanitized to comply with Polish Government requirements, new chargers or adapters to comply with 230V and lastly equipment shipping costs. DEERI has just over 5,000 laptops committed with an estimated cost of US$50 - 75K to transfer. Additionally all keyboards must be converted to support the Ukrainian alphabet. As a result, we need assistance to purchase sticker packets which contain Ukrainian letters. If you feel more comfortable purchasing things like chargers or stickers, we will be setting up links in order to do so.
- General and administrative costs such as web design and development, web hosting, printing, and other miscellaneous office supplies
- Transportation assistance for volunteers that will be traveling to Poland. Members of the DEERI core team are planning to be onsite in Krakow, Poland. The onsite team will be setting up computer labs, establishing distribution centers for equipment throughout Poland, providing technical training assistance to support a train the trainers model and through The Azadi Project, establishing peer to peer support groups for women experiencing trauma.
Individuals and organizations that may be willing to donate hardware, assist with inspecting laptops so we do not have to hire contractors to perform this function and lastly volunteer as a virtual tutor or therapist should visit the website globaldigitalaid.org and sign up.
We have been fortunate enought to get very close to our goal with the assistance of an amazing philanthropist. However, our campaign goal just needs to cross the finish line with the remaining ask
. Thank you for your consideration. To learn more about the project please visit us at globaldigitalaid.org
**100% of all contributions will be directed to support only the above categories of expenses. No income will be derived from this project.
