What’s the best way to donate cash to help Ukraine?
How can we help Ukraine?
That’s what many of us are asking as a terrible situation gets worse by the day.
We all want to give – but what is the best way to do it? And do we want to support military or humanitarian aid?
Adi Roche, Chernobyl Children’s Project International, answered that first question. She advised that donating cash to Unicef and the Irish Red Cross was the best way of ‘putting food in mouths’ of refugees.
You can contribute to the Red Cross directly or via money apps like N26 and Revolut. The Red Cross appeal via Revolut raised €10m this week, including a generous €1.5m donation from Revolut.
I made a small donation to all appeals mentioned below via websites and apps to try them out. The websites are all straightforward. Just go to the home page, locate the appeal and key in your card details.
I also used Revolut. This is definitely handiest once you locate the ‘donations’ button – and you’re one of their customers. ‘Donations’ wasn’t instantly apparent – maybe I’m a techno dunce – but when I searched it popped up and was very easy to use after that.
I tried to use N26 as well but despite offering to ‘open an account in eight minutes’, it put me on a waiting list for its ‘standard’ ie ‘free’ account, while also telling me that it wasn’t available in my country, which is a bit strange. So I couldn’t try that one out.
The Ukrainian embassy in Dublin wants to hear from people willing to help with medical supplies and housing. Details are below and on its website. It is also appealing for cash donations to help its military via the bank account at the end of this piece.
The Ukrainian Central Bank website has two options for donations – one for humanitarian aid and one to help the war effort, which might prove easier and quicker.
Giving money to buy weapons that are likely to be used in an
ongoing war is a tough call, especially in Ireland. And it’s a real sign of the times that there isn’t more controversy about this.
Has this terrible war shocked us out of our neutrality?
It’s a choice the EU has already collectively made, when it rushed through a €450m fund to buy weapons for Ukraine within days of the invasion in what EU president Ursula von der Leyen described as a ‘watershed moment’.
Ireland instead contributed to a €50m package of non-lethal military assistance. I doubt if Vladimir Putin will note the distinction.
The Irish Mail On Sunday’s parent company, DGMT, has donated £500,000 itself and raised £5m from readers via its online appeal.
If you’re not active online, you can donate to the Irish Emergency Alliance online, over the phone or by post. This is a group of seven leading humanitarian agencies who have come together ‘to respond faster and do more to save and help rebuild the lives of people affected by major emergencies worldwide’.
The member organisations are Action Aid, Christian Aid, Plan International, Self Help Africa, Tearfund, Trócaire and World Vision Ireland.