How you can make a difference in Ukraine, Gaza, and Syria

At a time when the world is so chaotic you may be avoiding the news, it’s easy to conclude there’s no way you can make a difference.

Especially when it comes to Vladimir Putin’s genocidal war on Ukraine (which the Trump administration may abandon), or Israel’s endless revenge on Gazan civilians for Hamas’ murderous rampage on Oct. 7, 2023.

Yet, one way to counter this sense of hopelessness — one that I, too, often experience — is to narrow your focus. This Christmas season, it is possible to donate to charitable organizations that can ease the suffering of individuals in war zones. Wherever possible, I am partial to smaller groups whose work I have witnessed abroad, especially in Ukraine.

As I did last year, I particularly recommend Ukraine TrustChain, whose teams deliver aid directly to where it is most needed, under threat of rockets and drone attacks. I have witnessed its terrific work on two reporting trips.

Ukraine TrustChain was founded at the start of the current war by two Ukrainian American friends who had emigrated from Kyiv to Chicago and Philadelphia, respectively, when they were 10 years old. Their concept was to find team leaders in Ukraine among people they or their circle of contacts trusted and have those volunteers build regional networks of people they trusted, in turn.

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The money raised goes directly to the teams, with constant contact and periodic visits from U.S. board members.

Ukraine, like the United States, is a volunteer society, and immediately after the war, groups sprang up around the country to bring supplies to villages and towns under shelling and help or shelter those who wanted to evacuate. The TrustChain has drawn on such groups.

I traveled with volunteer groups comprised of professionals and entrepreneurs, including a florist, a restaurateur, a psychotherapist, and a real estate agent. Many of the volunteers were women and retirees, or young men below draft age, who drove every weekend with truckloads of donated foodstuffs and essentials to villages damaged by Russian forces.

In one case, the mission was to assess roof and window damage at homes and schools and return with repair workers hired via donations. In another, it was to help villagers dig out after flooding when the Russians blew up a dam. I have witnessed the gratitude of desperate Ukrainians for the group’s aid.

What is so astonishing is that these volunteers have persevered after nearly three years of war and incredible risks. Russian drone pilots are on the lookout for aid vehicles. In November, one volunteer was killed and his father injured by a drone while delivering much-needed firewood to elderly residents of Ochakiv, in southern Ukraine. This kind of dedication helps explain why the country has so far survived the Russian onslaught.

Another incredible humanitarian aid effort that has helped war wounded is the Ukraine Initiatives project, coordinated by the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Center for Global Health under Glen Gaulton. The funding for this program comes from the Center for Global Health and from donations.

With the ongoing war, the number of amputations and explosive injuries has presented challenges that excellent Ukrainian surgeons have never encountered.

So numerous Penn surgeons and other specialists, guided medically by the indomitable Penn chief medical officer, Patrick J. Brennan, and supported logistically by the indefatigable Kierstyn Claycomb, partner up with leading Ukrainian medical centers. Via online consults, they supervise microsurgeries that can salvage limbs or prevent the worsening of leg and arm injuries.

Practically every day there are early morning online team-ups — which are amazing to watch — between Penn surgeons and Ukrainian counterparts conducting live operations. There are also periodic exchange visits by doctors. The idea is to train the Ukrainians in new surgical techniques so they, in turn, can train teams of colleagues.

I have witnessed the gratitude of frontline soldiers — often civilians who had never fought before the Russian invasion — whose limbs have been saved, infections cured, or debilitating pain relieved by this collaboration. And the need never ends.

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When it comes to Gaza, I have not witnessed aid deliveries myself because Israel rarely permits foreign journalists to enter the strip. But I have long known about, and previously written about, the nonpartisan work of the private U.S. aid agency Anera, which has no political or religious affiliation and has worked since 1968 with those hurt by conflicts in Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan.

Anera has been working inside Gaza with its own vetted local teams and security guards to provide aid whenever deliveries are permitted. And, of course, the need is endless there, as well.

For those who are concerned about the return of Israeli hostages, I recommend the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which has been helping families of Israeli hostages and lobbying at home and abroad for a hostage release deal for months, even as the Israeli government showed little interest. (Talk of a hostage deal has recently revived, but it is unclear when or if progress will occur.)

And now that mass murderer and former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has fled Damascus to Moscow, there will be a massive need for humanitarian aid inside Syria. Here, larger international aid agencies such as Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, and International Rescue Committee may be best placed to help, once the situation stabilizes. One note: You must specify that your donation should go to Syria since these large organizations work globally.

Just keep in mind the words of the famous precept in both the Talmud and Quran (too often honored in the breach): “Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”

In these times, that may be the most you can do.