April 13, 2022

Elevate Elevaters

Along with the world, we at Elevate have watched the events unfolding in Eastern Europe with concern and dismay.

In the face of the flood of refugees into their country, many of our Elevaters in Poland have been busy collecting food and other items necessary to survival, offering cash, and even acquiring ambulance equipment. The team is working on providing longer-term support as well, like helping with finding jobs and securing permanent housing.

On behalf of our friends and colleagues in Poland and Ukraine, in March, Elevate launched a GoFundMe campaign to obtain critical items via a known and trusted channel – specifically, our colleague Artur and his parents, Oleg and Julia, who are professors and psychologists at Catholic University in Lublin. Together, they have organised daily shipments of food, clothes, and blankets to the Polish-Ukrainian border, with more than 250 shipments sent so far. These materials are vital to the women and children waiting in long queues at the Polish border, forced to abandon their possessions and flee from their homes.

Oleg and Julia are now undertaking another humanitarian task to secure power generators for shelters, hospitals, and medical points. Providing generators is an urgent need to assist with restoring power to kitchens and medical equipment and even generating heat or light for sheltering families.

In the first 24 hours of our GoFundMe campaign, we raised more than half of our £15,000 goal! However, donations have since slowed. We have reached 75% of our goal and are redoubling our efforts to raise the remaining amount. We welcome your help in getting there – if you would like to make a contribution, please visit the fundraising page here.

As Agnieszka Jarska, our Geo Head in Poland, recently said, “Although the POL Elevate Team is OK and everyone’s safe – and our families, friends, and relatives are safe, too – still, our efforts continue. Helping those in need is a marathon, not a sprint. We will be very grateful to those individuals at Elevate, our customers, and our partners able to donate in support of our ongoing work.”

We hope you will join in answering her call for support at this difficult time. Together, we can make a profound difference in meeting the immense challenges at hand.