Why Volara Exists
A New Model for Aid on Ukraine's Frontline
[High-quality photograph or illustration of frontline work]
Something that captures the essence of a small team in a broken-down van, or a group of people working together at the front
The Personal Story & The "Aha!" Moment
I have been in and out of Ukraine since early 2023, calling Kharkiv home when here. In that time, I have had the privilege of doing frontline work alongside some of the most courageous Ukrainian and foreign teams imaginable. This experience revealed a stark paradox: those closest to the action are furthest from Western fundraising.
This became painfully clear on May 10, 2024, when Russia launched a new offensive in Northern Kharkiv. I was there on day one, and it was a sobering wake-up call. The first line of humanitarian defense was not a fleet of branded international NGOs (INGOs). It was a Ukrainian mechanized battalion, a special operations group, the local police, and a handful of micro-charities—each with two or three people and a half-broken van. They showed up without hesitation, driving into the fire to rescue the trapped and terrified. This image—of small, agile, fiercely committed local groups—is my unequivocal north star for who to support.
THE PARADOX OF AID
In the two years following the full-scale invasion, local Ukrainian organizations received less than 1% of the nearly $10 billion in humanitarian aid tracked by the UN.
Meanwhile, studies show local Ukrainian organizations are 15.5% more cost-effective than their international counterparts.
The System Is Broken
Bureaucracy over Urgency
The process for a local group to access international funds is a gauntlet of complex applications and slow approvals that can take months—a lifetime in a warzone. One NGO's urgent request for insulin took five months; by the time it arrived, the aid was no longer needed.
Costly Inefficiency
The international system is riddled with exorbitant overhead. The cost of a single international UN staff member in Ukraine is 17 times higher than that of a local NGO staffer doing a comparable job, leading to "brain drain" from the frontline.
The Wrong Focus
This system, obsessed with mitigating financial risk, institutionalizes the far greater risk: the certainty of aid arriving too late, or not at all.
The Solution - Volara's Promise
Volara is the answer to this systemic failure. We bypass the bureaucracy and inefficiency to get funds directly to the trusted, effective, and relentlessly brave Ukrainian organizations operating at the fringes. We find the heroes in the half-broken vans that the world doesn't see and give them the fuel they need to keep saving lives.
Join Us
A donation to Volara is not just charity. It is a strategic investment in a more effective, just, and direct model of humanitarian aid. It is a vote of confidence in the people who know best what their communities need and are risking everything to provide it. Join us.