Humanitarian Aid Organisations in Ukraine Call On Tech Industry for Support

Tech To The Rescue, a foundation that matches technology companies with non-profit organisations, today launches a new campaign #TechForUkraine, which aims to connect Ukrainian non-profits with technology companies capable of delivering digital solutions to increase their impact in the light of Russian invasion of the country.

In conjunction with the #TechForUkraine campaign launch, Tech to the Rescue is partnering with GURT Resource Center, the leading national centre for societal information and expertise. GURT has been active since 1995, committed to better Ukraine through strengthening civil society.

Since the beginning of war in 2014, a robust system of volunteer networks and charitable organisations have been established in Ukraine. Many of them have been supporting the estimated 2.9 million in need of humanitarian assistance according to figures from The United Nations. Russian re-invasion of the country has brought new disruption to this environment, including cyber-attacks adversely affecting the ability for organisations to deliver medical support and poverty relief. These local non-profits are now increasing the call for support from the international community.

The greatest areas of need are increasing cybersecurity, establishing more effective ways to interact with beneficiaries and coordinating efforts between different organisations through common databases, platforms and systems to share information and resources. A number of non-profits in Ukraine have already joined the #TechForUkraine campaign, calling for support from the international technology industry. They include:

  • Ukrainian Volunteer Service (Українська Волонтерська Служба), a non-profit organisation whose mission is to create a culture of volunteerism and mutual assistance in Ukraine to support senior citizens in need: https://volunteer.country/
    NGO Kamyanytsya Austria (Кам’яниця Австрія), a local conservation organisation working to preserve the architectural cultural heritage: https://ngoaustria.org/
  • Technology companies from around the world can join the campaign by pledging resources and employee time to work directly with Ukrainian non-profits: https://techtotherescue.org/tech/tech-for-ukraine

 

 

Jacek Siadkowski, Founder of Tech to the Rescue, said: “The international technology community has demonstrated its solidarity with many causes in the past and, over recent months, Tech to the Rescue has been glad to connect businesses with the non-profits that require their support on a pro-bono basis. Now though, we are calling for industry leaders to mobilise in the face of an immediate threat. Ukrainian non-profits need support more than ever – and we call on technology innovators to apply solutions that will make a permanent different for the months ahead, contributing towards poverty relief, medical support and the continued functioning of civil society for Ukrainian citizens.”

Founded in March 2020, Tech to the Rescue was created as a coalition of 10 Central European technology companies. Since then, over 250 technology companies and more than 300 non-profit organisations have joined the platform to implement technology solutions to solve the world’s most pressing social and environmental problems. Projects delivered to-date have positively influenced more than 1,000,000 people in 12 countries, including in areas covering:

  • Cybersecurity – CQure conducted an audit of the security standards at Polish Humanitarian Aid, introducing new systems to respond to so-called ‘social-hacking’.
  • Public health – Clorce built a system on the Salesforce platform to coordinate support for hospitals at the height of the pandemic
  • Donations and partnerships: SEOFly supported Good Food Institute Europe increasing their website visibility to acquire more institutional partners, employee candidates and donors

Bogdan Maslych, Director of the GURT Resource Center in Ukraine, said: “The digital age requires Ukrainian non-profits to change their structures and activities to maximise their impact in their hour of greatest need. Often, non-profits lack in-house resources for effective digital transformation and require professional software services to implement digital solutions. Building resilience and digital capacity of non-profits enables them to have a greater impact on Ukrainian society – particularly in the face of acute disruption we see as a result of an escalation of tensions with Russia.”