Alumni & Friends - Ways to get involved and give back
Department of Health and Society

Community Volunteering

Students and staff putting food in a food bank

The Government of Canada provides a whole list of resources for those looking to assist the Afghan refugees:

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/refugees/afghanistan/volunteer-donate.html

 

The 482 Collective:

They take new/old furniture and even clothes and are currently looking for winter clothes for women:

https://the482collective.com/

https://the482collective.com/contribute/#gifts-in-kind

 

Agincourt Community Services:

Looking food, clothing and hygiene products for low income families as well as homeless individuals.

Donation of food and clothing:

https://www.agincourtcommunityservices.com/donations

 

Afghan Women’s Organization Refugee and Immigrant Services

https://afghanwomen.org/

 

Durham Alliance Outreach:

Focuses on those in need in the Durham region, more specifically the LGBTQ2S+ :

https://www.durhamallianceoutreach.org/

 

How to help people with disabilities (PWD) in Ukraine

Verified assistance initiatives, empowerment groups

 

1) Support for queer activists, neurodivergent people, and independent artists:

https://bit.ly/freefilmerscallforsupport

Responding to urgent requests. Transportation and delivery of food supplies within Ukraine for queer, non-binary, and neurodivergent people. Raising funds for gasoline, food, medicine, all emergency expenses related to evacuation.

 

2) Foundation EverybodyCan

Organization providing help to children with disabilities, affected by war: https://www.facebook.com/everybody.can.ua/

Payment details are here: https://everybodycan.com.ua/rekviziti-fondu

 

3) Fundraiser Ukraine: Help Roma access humanitarian aid

https://chuffed.org/.../ukraine-help-roma-access...

Raising funds to help access organizations providing humanitarian aid, including transportation, food, medications, accommodation, and sanitation kits; to help the Roma children, women, and elderly seeking relocation; and to provide housing and transport for displaced Roma people who cannot access volunteer initiatives due to discrimination. The Roma in the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, and Kharkiv are facing shortages of food and water, and your donations will help get basic groceries for people there.

 

4) Fight For Right is helping people with disabilities evacuate from Ukraine. Seeks out volunteers, gathering medicine and food for this emergency. All funds will be used to transport people to safe places and give these people financial support, and to buy food and medicine for people who can not evacuate. Funds will be transferred directly to a Ukrainian NGO (Fight for Right NGO) led by Ukrainians with disabilities. Help will be provided directly on the ground in Ukraine.

Our website: https://eng.ffr.org.ua/support-in-crisis/eng ;

Our twitter: https://twitter.com/fightforrightua 

In any event of transfer issues, money will be refunded to each donor.

 

5) Support for refugees with disabilities: a fundraiser which supports disabled refugees arriving in Poland, https://zrzutka.pl/pelnoprawnaukraina?fbclid=IwAR3EhhVw9X5lP5qzeURHyNBTpgqS0fpLtioL62zheZFqqaQeuny9ZoWUjac (translation of the fundraiser (from Polish into English) is available if your scroll down) 

The fundraiser is organized by a well-known Polish disabled activist, Katarzyna Bierzanowska (https://www.facebook.com/pelnoprawna). Over the last 10 days over a million refugees arrived in Poland and many of them are expected to stay there (and some estimates show that between 2-5 mln refugees will come).

 

6) Support diabetics in Ukraine facing insulin and other shortages: https://www.typeonestyle.com/pages/support-diabetics-in-ukraine

 

7)  Donate to HealthProm, which is working to support and save lives of children with disabilities in Ukraine: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/emergencyukraineappeal?fbclid=IwAR18SpWyf30Koh66OF35yKB_AS-4qPrhNMTyLqGuUywHmHx_KW4GD8fHD8w

Since 2015 HealthProm has supported a network of over 50 parent-led NGOs, across Ukraine, to campaign for Early Intervention services for children with disabilities and their families. With a lifelong commitment to all vulnerable children, they have been instrumental in developing a new, inclusive, approach to child disability.  And from Lviv in the west, to the government-controlled regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, they remain united in their determination to protect all vulnerable children in Ukraine. We are now in contact with some 2,500 parents and supporters of children with disabilities, committed to the development of a better world for their children, and now, to their survival.  

 

8) Donate to The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies: https://disasterstrategies.org/

 

9) Take political action to condemn the ongoing Russian war of annihilation in Ukraine. Call on your political representative in your own home districts and states to put an end to the war as soon as possible to prevent further destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure and the violent injury of soldiers and civilians. 

 

10) Call on the UN and other humanitarian response organizations to integrate accessibility into their practices, by paying existing local disability-led organizations

 

11) Support the shelter for women who suffered from domestic violence, Pani Patrones, in Orlov area, Ukraine: https://www.facebook.com/Mrs.Patroness/ 

Before the war, they created a system to counter domestic violence in the city of Dnipro, which defended and accompanied women in court proceedings, and provided counseling for them, as well as shelter for around 20 women and children. Since the beginning of the war, the shelter has expanded dramatically, they are helping women from the areas of fire to travel further to the west, so any resources would be very helpful. Now they aslo help women who are victims of sexual violence in wartime to draw up protocols. Unfortunately there are already requests for this type of support.

If you or others consider donating, here is Viktoria's account in USD where one can send money:

BENEFICIARY

Recipient (name of the account recipient in Latin) - FEDOTOVA VIKTORIJA, 86141, Ukraine, region Donetska, city Makiivka, street Klary Tsetkin, building 30

IBAN - UA033052990000026201642147769

ACCOUNT

Recipient's account - 4731185502690305

BANK OF BENEFICIARY

Beneficiary's bank - JSC CB PRIVATBANK, 1D HRUSHEVSKOHO STR., KYIV, 01001, UKRAINE

SWIFT CODE/BIC: PBANUA2X

CORRESPONDENT ACCOUNT

Beneficiary's bank account with the correspondent bank- 0011000080

INTERMEDIARY BANK

Correspondent bank - JP MORGAN CHASE BANK

SWIFT CODE/BIC: CHASUS33

Currency - USD

 

12) Donate to the Ukrainian Society for the Deaf: https://wfdeaf.org/news/ukraine2022/ Message from the World Federation of the Deaf: The WFD is organizing a donation campaign to support deaf people in Ukraine through the work of our member The Ukrainian Society of the Deaf. We can also redistribute these donations to our members in neighboring countries who are receiving deaf Ukrainians refugees if necessary.

 

Resources for PWD in Ukraine and those fleeing the conflict (Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Russia, Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova)

  1. Practical information for people with disabilities who wish to evacuate from Ukraine (from the organization Fight for Right)

  2. Resources for people seeking to evacuate from Ukraine, and those already evacuated to neighboring and other countries: https://infohelpua.com/

  3. European Disability Forum’s Inclusive emergency response toolkit 

  4. Printable communication board for quick translation in refugee and medical situations: https://www.tobiidynavox.com/pages/ukraine-refugee-communication-resources/

  5. Deaf Hub-Ukraine, resources include information about evacuating Ukraine, maps of shelters. Includes contacts for teams of Deaf people’s organizations who are working to welcome Deaf refugees from Ukraine - links to chats and email contacts for Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and Moldova. Site is available in English, Russian, Ukrainian, German: https://www.offthegridmissions.org/ukraine?fbclid=IwAR1l48wAASjVYC-ALZbgudZe2AzmwDNMq5fg4u_YRlLJRVLYJMeOGdLLIKc&locale=uk

  6. Deaf-pl support Ukraine (in Polish):  https://www.facebook.com/groups/658772055553873/ 

  7. Online translation between Ukrainian Sign Language and Polish Sign Language (free for deaf people):  https://tlumacz.migam.org/ukraina?fbclid=IwAR0Jviy-kWo7RHTH9mRJko9W7boGY2dwk-BeNodoEA5Z_9IjccIbSTm96GU 

  8. Support those disabled people’s organizations in refugee-receiving regions already taking action: Poland (https://www.pzg.org.pl/2022/03/polski-zwiazek-gluchych-organizuje-pomoc-dla-gluchych-z-ukrainy/) 

  9. Off the Grid Missions, NGO Network of Assistance for Deaf & Hard-of-Hearing People in Ukraine https://www.offthegridmissions.org/   

  10. Communication Resources for Ukrainian Refugees (printable communication boards): https://www.tobiidynavox.com/pages/ukraine-refugee-communication-resources/?fbclid=IwAR1ZbrSMIr2qgsHFkvBEnZgz_d0L1-IcVwaaIOB4PwAn89_OfgbbtW1iWhs 

  11. Resources for BIPOC & Slavic Ukrainian Refugees: linktree

  12. Voices of Children: How to help 

 

Condemnation Statements by organizations and individuals re: war and PWD

  1. Statement of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Ukraine: Aged and those with disabilities face heightened risks”: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=28200&LangID=E

  1. Statement by social science and humanities scholars of disability in Eastern Europe, demanding an end to the war on Ukraine, appeal for attention to needs of people with disabilities: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1upSwvzNxn7PfywBt5C_7MnaVrWZxNIKdTtENsqJzP48/edit

  1. Statement and fundraising appeal (to Fight for Right, see below) by European Network for Independent Living (ENIL): https://enil.eu/news/war-in-ukraine-leave-no-one-behind/

  1. Statement on Ukraine by East European sub-regional Association of the Schools of Social Work (EEsrASSW): http://eesrassw.fsd.uni-lj.si/blog/2022/02/25/statement-on-ukraine-by-eesrassw/

  1. International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) statement on Ukraine: https://www.iassw-aiets.org/featured/9255-iassw-statement-on-ukraine/