– 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.