Since the escalation of the war in February 2022, until mid-October 2024, nearly 6.8 million refugees4 from Ukraine have been recorded – 92 per cent of them in Europe. Inside Ukraine, an estimated 3.6 million people5 remain internally displaced as of October 2024.
Among the most vulnerable are also an estimated 12.6 million as of March 2025 people who were not displaced from their homes but who have been directly affected by the war – they have been wounded, their homes have been destroyed, their family members died.
Civilian infrastructure, such as power grids, water supply networks. hospitals transportation infrastructure, have been targeted by the daily missile attacks, severely disrupting people’s lives across the whole country, and particularly in the East.
25.04.2023
– Hello! Bakhmut here. Could you help us again?
– What do you need?
– Everything. No one’s been here since your last visit.
Jan, head of our office in Dnipro. Our eyes and hands. He comes from Slavyansk. The front line passes through his family home today. Jan doesn’t theorise, he doesn’t say what he thinks. He doesn’t guess what people might need. He knows them and knows very well what they need. Thanks to Jan, we are getting help where no one else reaches.
With water supplies and meals ready, we arrived in Izium a few hours after its liberation. In Bachmut we have been more than once. Near Kherson, meals are warmed on rocket stoves from Jan. We have supplied large hospitals in Odessa and Kramatorsk with professional equipment, but thanks to Jan we also reach small centres. We know that even a power generator can save lives there.
Good Factory Ukraine was established on the 29th of December 2022. For nine months of Russia’s cruel aggression, the Polish Good Factory provided assistance on both sides of the border. We have learnt a lot and developed a network of trusted colleagues, thanks to whom we have settled firmly on the Dnieper in order to reach even further and more effectively with aid. Thanks to a great team, thanks to Jan, Ania, Vlad, Sasha, Sergei, Yevhen and Ivan, we have been where no one has helped since the first hours of the war. We are not at the races; we are not trying to be better. We are at war; we want to be effective.
We sometimes hear that the aid sent by someone ends up in the bazaar instead of reaching its destination. Sometimes aid arrives where it should not arrive. It numbs people’s vigilance. Instead of taking advantage of the evacuation, they wait for the next shipment, confident that since the support is reaching them, things are still not so bad. Then the bombs fall and it’s too late. With Jan’s eyes and hands, you can be sure that this is not our story, that we are squeezing all the good out of every penny you give us, and that we are not being fooled, we are not letting our vigilance slip away.
Our experience is already appreciated by the Ukrainian authorities and the community of international organisations. Together with Управліня ООН з координації гуманітарних справ / OCHA Ukraine, IOM Ukraine and Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH), we are working on a rapid response plan for emergency situations in eastern Ukraine. The plan is not ready yet, but it is already useful. Most recently during the attack on a block of flats in Zaporozhye.
We boast a great team, because the Good Factory is all about people. Those in Rwanda, Congo, Lebanon, Greece, Senegal and Burkina Faso. If you want to help, do it with people who know how to do it. Help with the Good Factory.
Sharing our posts is also a big help. Social media wants money for reach, and we know we have you. We ask you very strongly, let others see that thanks to the Good Factory, the good in this crazy world keeps on coming.
30.01.2024
Smart Charity – Using Technology to Make a Difference The usage and expenses related to new technologies have dominated the business world, and this trend extends to non-profit organizations. What technological solutions are used in non-profit organizations? What are the characteristics of Smart Charity? Smart Charity is a new concept describing a modern and agile […]
12.06.2023
To our questions about estimated casualty numbers, the most common answer is: “A lot! On both sides!”. Exactly how many no one knows, because getting aid to the occupied territories is like asking the aggressor for an open day in his trenches. On the 11th of June, the Russians fired on a boat with civilians […]
02.05.2023
What if this was your neighbourhood? If, between the billowing smoke, you spotted the ruins of the grocery store where you had shopped since you were a child? To which your mother would still send you with a list written in pencil on a piece of paper so you wouldn’t forget anything? Bachmut had more […]
