We are Common Man for Ukraine, a nonprofit alliance of donors and heroes working with Rotary Clubs in Plymouth, NH USA and Zamosc, Poland.
We have funded an all-volunteer network to provide basic humanitarian aid to refugee orphans and children with parents in Poland and Ukraine.
We are "common men" working to help our neighbors who face a needless war in Ukraine. Fiscally, we are a separate fund operating within the Plymouth Rotary Foundation 501(c)3.
Starting in March 2022, we learned that the best way we could help would be to raise funds and send them to trusted partners in Poland.
About 2,500 of our NH friends, our Plymouth NH Rotary Club, former NH Gov. John Lynch, and the media talents of TV station WMUR and iHeart Media raised $2.3 million. The NH Fishercats AA Baseball Team allowed us to host a Ukrainian benefit game!
Under our original banner of "NH Relief for Ukraine," we have provided funds to purchase 700 tons of food, thousands of sleeping bags, generators, a bloodmobile, and established a trauma counseling center for Ukrainian refugees.
After traveling to Poland and Ukraine three times, we have seen firsthand how hard the Ukrainians are working to repel the Russian aggression.
Everyone in the country is carrying the load.
We focus on the most innocent of the population - the kids - to help them first and foremost with the basics: food and heat.
The winter is brutal in Ukraine and we know it is urgent to restore our finances so we can continue to help over the long months ahead.
Our beginning in heartwarming New Hampshire is now expanding into a nationwide effort. Join us! Donations of all sizes are welcome and appreciated.
When the bombs first started falling in Ukraine, we established a goal to raise $2 million for humanitarian aid. We were thrilled by the generosity of everyone who helped us meet this goal and to provide so much help to Ukraine. As the war drags on, however, more and more kids are orphaned and displaced and more and more families need food and warmth.
Our goal for 2023 is to raise $10 million for direct humanitarian aid.
We're compelled to continue our work. Our visits to provide relief in Ukraine only prove there is more work to do and the need is growing every day. Our partners are ready to distribute the aid we can fund.
Will you help us? Please consider a donation, or sponsor a bag of grain, a pallet of food, a wood-burning stove or an orphanage-full of solar lanterns. Whatever you can do will help.
Our promise is to make sure every penny makes it to Ukrainians in need. Our first priority are the orphans and kids displaced by war. We promise we'll take care of them first and your donation will make a difference to the child you feed and keep warm.
Thank you for all you do!
Alex, Lisa, Susan, and Steve
Co-Founders, Common Man for Ukraine
Our Rotary Friends in Zamosc, Poland have used our funding to maintain two warehouses for the products we purchase locally and then ship into Ukraine.
Common Man for Ukraine co-founders Susan and Alex (yellow vests), are seen here preparing to deliver 1,000 sleeping bags to 21 orphanages outside Lviv.
Our volunteer Polish Rotarian brothers and sisters dedicate thousands of hours to get this aid to
Our Christmas Convoy of 30 trucks is seen here about to depart for areas outside Lviv, Ukraine.
On this Christmas Convoy we delivered 18 tons of food, 1,000 sleeping bags, 50 generators and Christmas packages to 1,300 orphans in 21 orphanages!
We got into some tough going on a snowy road to one orphanage.
The whole neighborhood turned out to help get us back on the road!
Deliveries are sometimes challenging, but kids are waiting for this food and so we'll keep going!
We arrive at one orphanage to the sight of kids eating by flashlight on a cold, snowy night.
We're the first food delivery they've had in weeks.
We bring enough food for 40 days.
The kids sing us Ukrainian Christmas carols and are thrilled to get Christmas presents, warm jackets and hats, books, toys and solar lanterns!
Thanks to the kindness of many volunteers in the United States, we're also able to deliver hundreds of handmade dolls, animals, hats, and scarves.