Thread by @UkraineAidOps

@Harri_EST and the team here at #UkraineAidOps are stoked and overwhelmed with the huge amount of support our important mission has attracted.

To date we’ve received donations from literally thousands of people like you who want to help Ukraine!
Let's check-in, a thread 🧵1/16

Managing donations is very challenging. Firstly, #Paypal blocked a portion of funds in one of our accounts, and our volunteers are constantly battling to keep things liquid. This is for those that were marked goods & services instead of gift. Gift clears much faster! 2/16

We’re told that portion was be unblocked today, but didn’t happen. We may need your help in ringing Paypal if it doesn’t happen tomorrow. Not yet though, pls stay tuned on that…. 3/16

Then we have fake accounts to contend with. Please do make sure if you are making donations that the account is this one. You can confirm also bc it's the only one linked from Harri’s @Harri_EST account. 4/16

VERY IMPORTANT! Please make sure when you donate to us or any other org through Paypal that is marked as a ‘gift’, otherwise they may block the funds for weeks. Please consider retweeting this message as it's vital to getting supplies to Ukraine as quickly as possible. 5/16

What else have we been up to? We've already had cut and bent five tons of steel we bought, which made 1,188 plates, for 594 sets of body armor. We have been distributing them to teams from Kharkiv to Donbas down to Zaporitzhe. 6/16

We bought 170 additional already-made level 5 (!) plates from a new supplier in Estonia that were delivered to our guys in Poland last night. Thanks to our logistics guys on the ground, we should have them here to give out very soon. 7/16

We also just purchased & distributed a batch of boots, helmets and carriers and thanks to your amazing help we’ve got 400+ items and counting coming from Amazon!

https://twitter.com/UkraineAidOps/status/1520820480688721920?s=20&t=KrwitMH24DL3aPM3sujpLg

8/16

The team here at #UkraineAidOps is now over 30 strong! All volunteering their time for no money. All of the costs of forming the legal entity, setting up systems and building the website are being contributed either by vendors or directly from the pocket of our volunteers! 9/16

On our team we have web devs, entrepreneurs, marketing experts, financial experts, project managers, protective gear experts and engineers from all walks of life, from Estonia, Finland, Canada, Ukraine, UK, S. Africa, USA, Germany all working day and night to make this work.10/16

Sleep is secondary, for most of us now but esp. for Harri. It is not uncommon to get a video call at 2am from Harri_EST asking if we can sort out some boots for some guys he is meeting who have only trainers and about to head east. He seems to sleep even less than Zelensky! 11/16

@Harri_EST and our team are passionate about helping our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. The supplies just aren’t getting to where they need to go in enough quantity up to now. Every plate of body armour and helmet can save a life, and boots and knee pads prevent injuries. 12/16

We have a supply and logistical team working round the clock calling suppliers, securing orders and making sure the specs are right for the job. There's no point in buying protective gear that doesn’t protect. 13/16

We have been amazed by your response so far, but much more needs to be done. Our focus right now is using the donations to get the equipment and get it there and then share that with you. Sounds easier than it really is, but we have a great team who are making it happen! 14/16

And we are doing some other exciting things: setting ourselves up as an official non-profit legal entity, which should help with the financial elements, and setting up a website and more social. Watch this space as our mission and project grows. 15/16

If you haven't so far, please do consider making a donation – details in the pinned tweet at top. The response has been so amazing so far, but we have much more to do. We will be sharing as much as possible the result of your donations. Slava Ukraini ✌️🇺🇦. 16/16