Urgent Projects

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Our mission is to bring urgent relief to those who need it most
- We provide humanitarian aid on an ad hoc basis
- We assist civilians in crisis situations, natural or man-made
- We remain neutral and impartial
- We deliver aid all around the world

URGENT supporters are simply adorable! - and when you read this post, we know you will agree.Allow us to introduce Donut...
23/01/2024

URGENT supporters are simply adorable! - and when you read this post, we know you will agree.

Allow us to introduce Donut. He’s had an extraordinary life. Born in Zaporizhia just before the war broke out, at the age of 1 month, he was evacuated to Poland. From there, he took a very long and complicated trip to finally meet his family in the UK 🐕🇺🇦- 🇵🇱- 🇩🇪- 🇳🇱- 🇫🇷 - 🇬🇧Now a proud Londoner (with Ukrainian roots and a slight aversion to long travels), Donut is a unique character.

Donut's humans volunteer for URGENT, and so does he. This lovable pup has rallied pets globally to aid cats and dogs in Ukraine. They are less fortunate and urgently need our help to ensure their shelter remains warm through the winter.

One of the animals responding to the call was Gertie the Cat, all the way from Brisbane, Australia! It appears URGENT's support network isn't just international; it's inter-species too!

So, whether you're a dog or a cat enthusiast, or even if you happen to be a dog, cat, or perhaps a ferret - join us in the effort to improve the lives of 400 four-legged residents at the Zoopatrul shelter in Irpin!

Donut donates! And so can you, right here: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/urgentanimals

It’s not just the people of Ukraine who need URGENT help, it’s also the animals. But during a war, when everyone's atten...
11/01/2024

It’s not just the people of Ukraine who need URGENT help, it’s also the animals. But during a war, when everyone's attention is rightly focused on human suffering, it can be a real challenge to collect charitable funds for cats and dogs. And yet we shouldn’t forget the pain that our four-legged friends have come to endure. In wartime, they also suffer hardships and experience trauma; they lose their limbs, their lives, their homes and owners.

Here at URGENT, we didn’t hesitate when we received a request for help from one of our trusted partners, the ZOOPATRUL shelter outside Kyiv, in the city of Irpin. Launched in 2022 in response to the war, this full-cycle, European-style animal shelter provides care for cats and dogs who have been wounded and left without their caretakers. ZOOPATRUL relies solely on charitable donations to pay for food, care products and medications for its wards—and salaries for the maintenance workers, stewards and veterinarians. And, of course, to pay for the utilities. Now that winter is here, that’s the most pressing concern. .

URGENT are looking for help to provide the ZOOPATRUL shelter—and its 400 residents—with stable electricity and heat throughout the winter. Enclosures for cats and dogs need to be insulated against the cold, and they need to be heated uninterruptedly. At the Zoopatrul shelter, the only option they have is electric heating—and the resulting cost is unbearably high. I; in the winter, the heating bill shoots through the roof.

It goes without saying that the animal shelter in Irpin has many other needs. But the need to cover its electricity bills is truly URGENT.To be frank, it’s a matter of life or death for the animals.

Let’s support the shelter team as urgently as we can.
Please follow the link provided in the first comment to contribute.

The holidays are a time for families. We’d like to introduce you to ours.These are the trustees of URGENT:EKA VEKUAURGEN...
22/12/2023

The holidays are a time for families. We’d like to introduce you to ours.

These are the trustees of URGENT:

EKA VEKUA
URGENT’s founder and its driving force, Eka is both a mastermind and miracle worker. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Eka leapt into action. She knew she wanted to help the victims of the war, and she immediately started to identify the people and institutions that needed assistance—and those would be willing to provide it. Acting fast and with precision, Eka aimed for optimal solutions, ones that ensured transparency and maximised the impact of every penny spent. Her operational principles soon became the basis of URGENT’s particular approach to charitable work.

EUGENE MATVEICHUK
A partner at a prestigious London-based law firm, Eugene advises on all aspects of English commercial law and has over 20 years of experience advising major private and state corporations as an international disputes lawyer. At URGENT, Eugene is involved in strategic planning aimed at developing a new breed of charity characterised by responsiveness, flexibility, and transparency. By setting and following clear guidelines that ensure steady and sustainable growth, Eugene increases the positive impact of the foundation’s work.

INGEBORGA DAPKUNAITE
Ingeborga is URGENT’s ambassador and a highly acclaimed Lithuanian-British actress. Her impressive body of work includes such notable films as Mission Impossible, Seven Years in Tibet, Kiss of Life, and Burnt by the Sun, which won both an Oscar for Best Foreign Film and the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. Ingeborga is currently a regular cast member of the Norwegian TV series Occupied, and has starred in several theatrical productions alongside the actor John Malkovich. Ingeborga’s unique experience combines an artistic perspective and her extensive involvement with other charitable initiatives.

RODION SHISHKOV
A distinguished entrepreneur in the technology sector, Rodion’s most recent ventures are Funkflow and Address Robotics, companies which specialise in innovative construction cycle technologies, including automation and robotics solutions. Since the very first day he joined URGENT, Rodion has been an indispensable contributor, guiding us to establish the operating processes and methodology most appropriate to the our goals and capabilities. Rodion’s acumen and advice have enabled us to look beyond the achievement of our short-term, tactical goals towards an understanding of how to use each project to build a foundation for strategic growth.

LENKA CHUBUKLIEVA
Lenka is the CEO of LCUK Artists Ltd, a distinguished London-based company that specialises in organising public and private events in the UK and Eastern Europe. Before starting at URGENT, Lenka had worked closely with an array of charities to deliver crucial humanitarian aid to victims of the war in Ukraine. She joined us first as a volunteer, proved herself an ace in logistics and, soon enough, was invited to join the board of trustees. Today, Lenka brings both balance and momentum to URGENT in her drive for more efficient financial management and effective fundraising.

These remarkable people are part of the URGENT family. Together, we'd like to wish you and your family a holiday season filled with joy, warmth and a sense of belonging.

URGENT has been around for almost two years now, and still one of the most common questions we get is: “Do you ever send...
21/12/2023

URGENT has been around for almost two years now, and still one of the most common questions we get is: “Do you ever send military aid?”

The answer: No. We provide aid and assistance to civilians only.
We do not and will never provide aid to armed forces.

Actually, that’s one of our founding principles—and it’s important to us that you understand. Yes, providing help to those who need it most means that URGENT often has to operate in war zones. But wherever we go:

—We always remain neutral
—We always remain impartial
—We never provide aid to armed forces

We are URGENT in our readiness to help, but we will never interfere directly in an armed conflict. That’s not our mission.

As a humanitarian aid organisation, we are concerned with preserving human welfare. Above all, we seek to identify and bring relief to those who are suffering. In times of war, we aim to provide relief to victims. And to us, victims are inherently defenceless—and always unarmed.

This principle of neutrality and non-interference stands at the very core of our activity at URGENT. We are committed to this principle and we vigorously apply it each time we decide which projects to take on.

Join us in the effort to bring holiday spirit to 500 children at IDP shelters in Zaporizhzhia. Our partners at the Ukrai...
08/12/2023

Join us in the effort to bring holiday spirit to 500 children at IDP shelters in Zaporizhzhia. Our partners at the Ukrainian NGO You Are Not Alone are organising a party for them and their parents. The programme includes an interactive matinee and a Christmas performance at the local Children’s Theatre—and of course, a gift for each child. Together, we can make sure these kids get the holiday they deserve!

People do not just die during wars—they are also born. A recent URGENT project provided help to those who did not yet ex...
30/11/2023

People do not just die during wars—they are also born.

A recent URGENT project provided help to those who did not yet exist.

Unborn children need protection from the world they are about to enter, and their mothers need sanctuary and material assistance too.

We all know the unimaginable suffering that war brings to its direct victims. We all see the lives and families destroyed by missiles, mines, and drones in the news everyday.

Yet there are also less direct, if no less terrible consequences of war that are less frequently covered by news outlets. Among these are the psychological consequences of war, and, in particular, the long-term, heightened levels of stress people living in war zones are subjected to.

As they prepare to give new life, pregnant women must already meet increased physical and psychological demands. This makes them more vulnerable than most to the increased levels of stress brought about by war.

This, in turn, means the number of premature births increases significantly under conditions of war. Maternity hospitals in war-torn regions experience an increased demand for medical equipment to help care for premature newborns: incubators, phototherapy lamps, and the like.

Though the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the forced mass relocation of women and children makes gathering accurate numbers difficult, a NYT poll of several maternity hospitals in Ukraine found a 5% rise in premature births since the war began.

Under normal circumstances, the Kropyvnytskyi Maternity Hospital in central Ukraine delivers more than 2,000 newborns every year. Since the war began, the hospital has faced an increase in preterm births from women living in Kropyvnytskyi.

Kropyvnytskyi is within 250 miles of Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv, the three Ukrainian cities nearest to the front lines. This means it has also had to care for many women fleeing these more dangerous zones.

Suffering an acute shortage of equipment for the delivery and care of premature babies, the Kropyvnytskyi Maternity hospital approached URGENT with a request for medical equipment.

URGENT delivered an aid shipment to the Kropyvnytskyi Maternity Hospital. We are grateful to our donor for their £32,542 donation, as well as to our partners at the Kyiv School of Economics Foundation KSE Foundation for their assistance with this project.

How and why the URGENT approach works is perhaps best explained through a concrete example. Kharkiv is a city in the nor...
30/11/2023

How and why the URGENT approach works is perhaps best explained through a concrete example.

Kharkiv is a city in the northeast of Ukraine, very near the Russian border. Last year, we received a request for aid from the Kharkiv Railway Clinical Hospital No. 2. The hospital has the capacity to care for over 400 patients, but was suffering from a critical shortage of autoclaves—steam sterilisers used to disinfect surgical instruments.
The autoclaves the hospital did have had been produced in 1979.

URGENT’s pool of suppliers allowed it to immediately find a trusted producer of autoclaves in India and to receive a quote for the costs—these autoclaves were far less expensive than those manufactured in Europe. Once the hospital in Kharkiv had approved the Indian autoclaves, URGENT was able to immediately find a donor who agreed to donate precisely the amount of money required for the project—within three days of receiving the request from the Kharkiv Railway Clinical Hospital No. 2, URGENT had ordered the autoclaves in India.
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Then came what is often the most difficult stage of the process of delivering aid: the delivery itself. Even at the best of times, getting aid into a war zone is a difficult process, with many unpredictable variables that are likely to go wrong. In this instance, an already complicated delivery was made all the more complicated by the disastrous earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria. Global logistics were severely affected, and India put all of its shipping orders on pause.

However, URGENT was able to negotiate a route that allowed the autoclaves to reach Kharkiv within a month—having passed through New Delhi, Dubai, Helsinki, Warsaw, and West Ukraine.

A month may not seem so urgent a timeframe—but if we remember that other, more traditionally-structured charities would usually require at least this time only for fundraising, and take into account the extraordinary context of both war and natural disaster in which this delivery was made, we think this case illustrates the advantages of the URGENT approach.

Oh, hello—we’re glad you’ve made it here, whoever, and wherever you are. But who are we?We are URGENT, a UK-registered c...
24/11/2023

Oh, hello—we’re glad you’ve made it here, whoever, and wherever you are.

But who are we?

We are URGENT, a UK-registered charitable foundation founded in 2022. We founded URGENT to provide aid—food, medicines, and medical equipment—to those in need at greater speed, more efficiently, and more transparently than many traditional charities. Metaphorically speaking, the function we try to fulfil with URGENT is closer to that of a first aid kit than it is to an ambulance— URGENT provides aid to those in the most acute need. Though URGENT began as a response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, today, we provide aid to beneficiaries all over the world. These beneficiaries are often civilians in conflict zones, however, our aid is always neutral and impartial— URGENT does not provide aid to armed forces. As we see it today, our mission is to bring urgent relief to those who need it most, wherever they are.

You could compare URGENT to a charitable aid delivery service—we have evolved a structure for the provision of aid that allows us to respond to URGENT requests several times faster and more efficiently than a traditionally structured charity.

Timing (urgency) is crucial in disasters, whether they are natural or man-made. Every minute matters in rescuing victims from the rubble after an earthquake, and the same is true of hospitals in war-torn regions facing drastic shortages of the most basic supplies.

How do we do it? Over the last year, we have gathered pools of trusted donors and suppliers with an interest in supporting or collaborating with URGENT. We have also developed strong relationships with local governmental and non-governmental organisations across the world— from beneficiaries and partner nonprofits in Ukraine, suppliers in India, to more recent projects in the Middle East.

Our local relationships mean we can swiftly vet requests for aid. Once a request has been vetted, our pool of donors means we can almost entirely bypass the often time-consuming fundraising stage. Our pool of suppliers also significantly reduces the time of delivery, as well as minimising the cost—and maximising the efficiency—of aid.

We built URGENT on three pillars—urgency, efficiency, and, lastly, transparency. We provide all our donors with detailed, evidence-backed reports of the projects they make possible within a week of their completion—our donors are always very clear on how (and why) their money has been spent.

Thank you for having taken the time to read to the end of this post—we hope we’ll see you here again soon, when we use concrete examples rather than metaphors to illustrate what we do at URGENT.

Address

32 St James's Street
London
SW1A1HD

Telephone

+447377643323

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