The generosity and support of our friends and family has been incredible, but somewhat overwhelming. Katie and I were discussing today on our run that we feel a great responsibility to use all the donations wisely and this weighs on our minds.
I swear the last two weeks have felt like a year
Katie Eichten on a morning run
Bulgarias Displaced Ukrainian Stats
Funds Raised
| NZD | 16,705.00 |
| USD | 19,418.00 |
| GBP | 350.00 |
| BGN | 650.00 |
| TOTAL BGN (approx) | 56694.12 |
Funds Spent
Honestly I don’t know as we have just been swiping our own cards and saving the receipts as I haven’t had time to tally it all up. At the end of this month I will add a complete break down of spending table on the Transparency & Accountability and accountability page.
If I had to make a quick guess I’d say around 6-7000 BGN.
Accomplishments
- Found housing for 12 displaced Ukrainians.
- 6 now live with us and we wouldn’t have it any other way
- 5 in a house in Alino (the next village over)
- 1 now living with Yana
- Purchased a weeks worth of food and essentials for the family going in to Alino as they arrived with nothing.
- Michael has also provided temporary accommodation to a family of 3 passing through.
- Provided 3 rounds of urgent supplies to the Open Doors Center where they are directly handling out essentials to the 100+ people showing up a day. We go in and ask what they are missing before shopping to ensure the correct items are purchased.
- Half-assed built a website to chronicle this “adventure”
On-Going Expenses
- Providing food and essential support to the above families and helping Yana pay for the increase in her bills.
In Progress & Next Goals
- Settle a family with Mike either short or medium term as the room is free again
- Get our AirBnb apartment sorted for accommodation as it is about to become available.
- Get all the financials online for transparency.
- Our company Topvine has offered up our services for free and is now in charge or building the websites for Open Doors in English, Bulgarian and Russian.
- Find corporate funding, grants, anything really to help the center long term. Everything is run on donations at the moment including the building, but this has limitations. They are going to need roughly 35-40K EUR per month to provide proper long term support in education, daycare, PTSD centers AND re-skilling center.
Special thanks to all of you that have donated and spread the word.
Avrora, her husband, and her parents, for offering up their holiday house in Alino.
Atanas from Derida who is working with Katie to help others find more housing.