Access for Good: How we are supporting Ukrainian refugees

As part of our Access for Good initiative, we donate 1c for every online top-up sent. Using funds raised from the last three months, we put this towards providing support and essential items for displaced Ukrainian families.

To support, we have donated to UNICEF's on the ground response in Ukraine and provided free phone credit for those in need.

We also hosted our first 'Ding Donation Day' at Ding HQ, raising extra funds to support on the ground work of one of our team members who is supporting Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

Ding donation day: Additional Є10,000 raised!

Our colleague, Damian Malecki has been helping Ukrainian refugees arriving in his homeland of Poland, and in support, the Access for Good team organised a virtual fundraiser and online auction to raise money to continue his work.

The response from staff was incredible, donating more than Є5000. As an extra incentive the company matched staff donations, so in total Є10,250.98 was raised in less than 12 hours to go towards Damian's efforts.

Damian's on the ground response in Poland

Using the money raised from our donation day, Damian has been purchasing fresh food, non-perishables and sanitary items and dropping them at collection points in the city of Bielsko-Biala, south Poland.

The needs of the people at the drop-off centers often change depending on who is staying there at the time, so Damian is kept up to date via Facebook pages and WhatsApp groups about what purchases are needed for each drop.

The drops he is making is split between four locations: A local fire station, a holiday resort and two government run centres.

Each drop usually consists of about 60% fresh food, staple items such as cooking oil, rice, pasta, flour and tinned food, and sanitary items like washing powder, tampons, soaps and nappies.

"The donations from Ding have easily helped more than 500 refugees, who are mostly mothers with children and older people. I have had countless messages from people who are extremely thankful for our help" - Damian

It has been inspiring to see Damian share updates to the company about the purchases and who they are been distributed to, knowing that the money raised is having a direct impact.

Keeping Ukrainian's connected through the Ding Mobile Top-up Fund

Our Mobile Top-up Fund was setup in February allowing Ding customers to donate a top-up to Ukrainian's who have been displaced by the war. Each donation allows us to provide phone credit to those in need.

A number of staff also organised the drop off of thousands of physical top-up cards which were dropped at various points in Spain, Romania and Poland.

The top-up cards gave arriving refugees $5 USD of free top-up as a way to keep them connected. Part of our Access for Good donation went towards purchasing these top-ups to ensure all those that needed to stay connected could.

Utilising UNICEF to provide immediate, targeted support

As the war in Ukraine unfolded, we worked closely with our ongoing partner UNICEF to identify where we could help. Due to the longstanding relationship we have, our funds were able to be quickly transferred and put to use immediately.

At the time of writing, UNICEF's focus is in Eastern Ukraine where they are scaling up life-saving programmes for children. This includes:

• Trucking safe water to conflict-affected areas

• Prepositioning health, hygiene, and as close as possible to communities near the line of contact

• Providing emergency education supplies for children who remain in Ukraine and those leaving.