How you can help Ukraine
Let's do all we can, folks.
Sree’s newsletter is produced w/ Zach Peterson (@zachprague). Photo of Broadway Presbyterian Church near Columbia University, taken last night while walking the family dog. In addition to my tips on how you can help, see Bob Anthony’s tech tips and a list of resources and guidance for tech firms and individuals to consider from our friends Somak Chattopadhyay and Pia Sawhney of Armory Square Ventures.
🗞 TUNE IN: This week’s Sunday #NYTReadalong is with Andrea Elliott, a Pulitzer Prize-winning NYT investigative reporter, and the author of “Invisible Child.” You can watch live 8:30-10 am ET or via recording, at readalong.link/youtubeplaylist. The Readalong is sponsored by Muck Rack. Interested in sponsorship opportunities? Email sree@digimentors.group and neil@digimentors.group.
📺 My Digimentors team is looking for partners, sponsors, and a venue for #SMWKND 2022. This is a tremendous opportunity to connect with an exciting event that I've been doing since 2011. Get in touch with me (sree@digimentors.group) and Linda Bernstein (linda@digimentors.group) to discuss how we can work together. Details coming to smwknd.com.
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RUSSIA’S WAR IN UKRAINE HAS ESCALATED. Despite many well-documented successes for Ukrainian fighters (and villagers), a week into the invasion it’s become clear that this war will be long and violent.
More than 1.5 million Ukrainians have already left the country — mainly women and children, as fighting-age men need to stay — and a full on refugee crisis is happening in Europe right now, and it will only get worse.
Two years of pandemic spending and economic slowdown affected some European countries pretty dramatically. Now, countries like Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and the Czech Republic, are facing a massive influx of people fleeing war and countries just now emerging from the Covid19 crisis face a refugee crisis that could last a generation.
The thing is, Ukraine already had nearly one million internally displaced people, and 3 million more in need of humanitarian aid, at the end of 2021. Ukraine has been occupied by Russian forces for nearly a decade, and now those forces are on the march. Although they’ve been slowed in places, Russian forces have started targeting residential areas.
There are many ways that we can help, and I want to highlight a few where I know every donation can really make an impact.
World Central Kitchen is feeding people at eight border crossings in Poland, is on the ground in Romania, Moldova and Hungary, and is arriving soon in Slovakia. Amazingly, Chef José Andrés’s organization is also supporting local restaurants preparing meals in five Ukrainian cities including in Odessa and Lviv. Read more and support them here.
My friends at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, are doing incredible work, as always. And they’ve stepped up their operations and capacity in Ukraine and neighboring countries. Please donate here.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is trying to raise $100 million for relief efforts in Ukraine, but they have a ways to go to get there. You can donate here.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is active in every country and has emergency teams in and around Ukraine working to save lives. Read more and donate to those efforts here.
People in Need (PIN) is a Czech Republic-based nonprofit that is on the ground in Ukraine (and close to newsletter co-producer Zach’s heart). In addition to providing psychological assistance via a phone line, PIN is providing urgent humanitarian needs in Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and Sviatohirsk. Learn more and give here.
Of course, when such crises hit, scammers show up, too. The Better Business Bureau has been warning us about such scams and has put together a list of nonprofits that meet the BBB Standards of Accountability.
You can also book and pay for AirBnBs in Ukraine and get money to people that way. I chose a private room rather than a full home, hoping that folks who rent out rooms are likely to be less wealthy folks. Read what else AirBnB is doing.
Please add your favorite nonprofits and ways to help in the comments, or tweet me: @sree.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Sree’s Sunday Note if I didn’t point out some American political dimensions of the crisis.
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- Sree Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube / Cameo.
A Message on Ukraine from Armory Square Ventures
As we write this, Ukrainians endure harsh and challenging setbacks, the likes of which have not been seen there in recent memory.
In solidarity with the nation and its heroic citizens, we have compiled resources and guidance for tech firms and private individuals to consider as the conflict widens, and sanctions against Russia take effect.
Tech Tip w/ @newyorkbob: Old & New Tech Come to the Aid of Ukraine
By Robert S. Anthony
Each week, veteran tech journalist Bob Anthony shares a tech tip you don’t want to miss. Follow him @newyorkbob.
“Seek truth and report it,” is one of the key pillars of the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, but carrying it out in wartime, even from a safe distance, can be a heavy lift when lines of communication are limited.
By cracking down on the news that can be consumed by its own citizens and attacking the communications infrastructure in Ukraine, Russia has cut deeply into the amount of uncensored information available to Ukraine’s residents. However, Ukrainians are finding ways to stay connected thanks to a mix of old and new technologies.
While cellphone coverage is shrinking by the day due to cell tower damage, Ukraine still has many working old-style wired landline phone networks, some of which are like those in the US and have their own power sources. (When New York suffered a power blackout in 2003, many residents were stunned to find that while their cell phones went offline, their wired phones were still working.)
Shortwave radio, an ancient communications technology, has been brought out of retirement by the BBC to get unfiltered news reports into Ukraine and Russia. Shortwave radio transmissions can travel thousands of miles thanks to their ability to bounce off the Earth’s ionosphere and back. The BBC recently started broadcasting on two shortwave frequencies that can be received on compatible radios from many manufacturers.
Satellite phones, another older technology, may seem like logical wartime options since they work globally and don’t require any ground equipment, but they’ve proven to be easily trackable, thus making their use in wartime dangerous, the Committee to Protect Journalists made clear 10 years ago.
Responding to a plea from a Ukrainian official, SpaceX founder Elon Musk recently made his Starlink satellite Internet service available in Ukraine and shipped in truckloads of equipment. Starlink doesn’t require a satellite phone—any Internet-connected communications device can be used.
However, Musk noted that Starlink antennas might be targeted by the Russian military and suggested “light camouflage” to avoid detection. When some Starlink signals fell victim to jamming, Musk tweeted that Starlink had “reprioritized to cyber defense.”
If you do manage to reach someone close to the combat zone, remember: Keep the conversation short, try not to use names—and never talk about specific locations.
Listen to Something
It’s impossible to know what Vladimir Putin sees as his endgame in Ukraine. But, it’s becoming increasingly clear that he is very isolated, and appears to be willing to turn Russia into a true pariah state. This discussion on the New Yorker Radio Hour, with David Remnick, Joshua Yaffa, and Masha Gessen, paints some very bleak pictures of what could happen — and what is happening right now — in Russia. Listen here or on all major podcast platforms.
Listen to Something Else
The tech response to the war in Ukraine has been interesting (we will discuss this at length in a future edition). The digitization of the world has led to massive economies built around online collaboration — now, those avenues for connection like video games, tools like Slack or MS Teams, and the very architecture that supports them, is being shut off in Russia. This episode of Protocol’s Source Code podcast does a good job of providing an overview of what’s happening now.
Odds & Ends
🩺 Be sure to check out our “She’s On Call” podcast, with surgeons Sujana Chandrasekhar, MD (@DrSujanaENT), and Marina Kurian, MD (@MarinaKurian) — watch the live show on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
🗞 TUNE IN: This week’s Sunday #NYTReadalong is with Andrea Elliott, a Pulitzer Prize-winning NYT investigative reporter, and the author of “Invisible Child.” You can watch live 8:30-10 am ET or via recording, at readalong.link/youtubeplaylist. The Readalong is sponsored by Muck Rack. Interested in sponsorship opportunities? Email sree@digimentors.group and neil@digimentors.group.
👀 Did we miss anything? Make a mistake? Do you have an idea for anything we’re up to? Let’s collaborate! sree@sree.net and please connect w/ me: Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube / Cameo.