Be an Angel: Looking into the Humanitarian Aid

Before we move forward, we must have a general understanding of what humanitarian aid is and how it serves to bring relief to nations from around the world. 

In simple terms, humanitarian aid can be considered the assistance that is used to relieve people who are suffering during an emergency situation. It is different from development aid, which is another form of assistance that goes to address the ongoing issues that have been contributing to human suffering. In general, humanitarian aid can be seen as a service that directly benefits the people whereas development aid is used to enhance structural systems. 

Humanitarian assistance is specifically designed to cater to confront vulnerabilities that are enhancing risks. For example, a clinic can be set up to treat all kinds of medical cases in women and children who are residing in refugee camps, where resources tend to be limited and hunger is a major threat. Another example can be to help farmers who have lost their crop to natural disasters by providing them with short-cycle seeds so that they can be planted and quickly grown – ensuring that they don’t miss harvest and have income, plus enough food to survive. 

You can learn more of how other organisations are working to provide relief to people suffering from economic distress by looking into the work of some of the leading organisations of our time – a prime example being Be an Angel e.V. 

As a reputable organisation that is actively implementing significant change to the concerning Ukraine situation, Be an Angel e.V. works on providing effective refugee support from conflict and war zones. Their main expertise lies in evacuating and providing humanitarian support – including on-the-ground assistance – to refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and more.  

Some of their notable works include having evacuated over 12000 Ukrainians and bringing over 22M euros first aid to Ukraine from March to August 2022. The organisation also received 100% profits as a donation from Berlin-based record label Pelagic Records’ double- cassette compilation, ‘Ukrainian War Refugee Support – A Pelagic Compilation” to have enough funds to support refugees in diverse ways.  

Be an Angle has also founded the Kruezberger Himmel restaurant in 2018 where its operations provide financial support to Be an Angel. It has space for more than a 100 guests, a team of 13 employees from different countries where most of them have a history of flight and only 2 that have any restaurant experience. 

A counterpart of Be an Angel was also founded over the years – it is called “Friends of Be an Angel” which is where Anya Verkhovskaya serves as the Director of the Board. 

Friends of Be an Angel is a non-profit organisation where its operations are mainly centred around fundraising, evacuating refugees, and delivering humanitarian aid to Ukraine from North America and Europe. An example of its daily work involves working with donors to receive, purchase, collect, deliver, and distribute humanitarian aid in Ukraine. Moreover the aid tends to come in different forms, which means it can be things like water purification systems, blankets, food, ambulances, medications, medical equipment, clothes, generators, and whatever is essential for refugees to survive everyday.