Help Ukraine
Our mission
To build a long-lasting partnership between the societies of Poland and Ukraine, based on mutual respect, support and friendship.
About the Foundation
We have been working for Ukraine for 20 years !
We are one of the oldest organizations in Poland that supports and helps Ukraine.
We are part of the “International Staff of Aid to Ukrainians” – an organization that operates in 75 countries.
We have direct accreditations from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Education of Ukraine.
Since 2006, the TPU Board has been headed by Weronika Olena Marczuk
Who are we?
Statute of the Organization
here
Weronika Olena Marczuk - President of the Organization.
Weronika Olena Marczuk:
A Slavic soul, Ukraine’s most prominent figure in Poland, actively works to support both of her homelands. Born in Kyiv and currently residing in Warsaw, she has dedicated the past 30 years to bridging the gap between Ukraine and Poland. She accomplishes this through various means: her legal expertise as a legal counselor, her business acumen as an executive manager (Executive MBA), her contributions to film and culture as a film producer and member of the Polish Film Academy.
Since 2006, she has held the position of President at TPU (Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Ukrainy in Warsaw), while also serving as the Representative and Chief Coordinator for Poland at the International Aid Headquarters for Ukrainians, operating in 75 countries worldwide.
Beyond her notable television and media work, Weronika Marczuk is widely recognized for her exceptional organizational skills, leadership qualities, and her fervent dedication to initiating significant projects aimed at helping others. She also serves as expert- a Commissioner for the Ukrainian Market of the Polish-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and as the President of the International Women’s Entrepreneurship Embassy in Ukraine. Through these roles, she actively supports the Polish-Ukrainian agreement and endeavors to strengthen the bonds between the nations and their economies.
As a seasoned entrepreneur, she has been inspiring women, youth, and various communities through her motivational speeches and authored books for many years. She is the author of 3 books, including “O!Ukraїna” – all about Ukraine.
Weronika Marczuk serves as an Ambassador for the global environmental project “Greening of the Planet,” which originated in Ukraine. She passionately addresses environmental protection issues and actively participates in initiatives that provide practical solutions to these challenges.”
Our team
Our team includes people with diverse backgrounds and professions, from lawyers, musicians, filmmakers, art animators, civil servants, Buddhist monks, and people working in corporations. Thanks to this incredible diversity, we are able to pursue a common goal efficiently and solve problems that arise very creatively. We benefit from each other’s experiences, because we know that this will make us more effective, as well as it makes us grow ourselves.
We were united by a desire to help and to oppose all manifestations of aggression and violence. We have came to the TPU out of the need of the heart, moral duty, in defense of the people against Russian aggressors, moved by the bestiality against the Ukrainian population.
Our motivation is to help those in need at every level, starting from those basic necessities for survival, such as food and medicines for people in war zones, to those necessary for a dignified, safe life, such as education for the youngest and care for children and youth from orphanages evacuated to Poland, or mobile homes. We focus on implementing systemic, structural, long-term assistance. An important area of our activities is psychological support and assistance in adapting to new living conditions in our country, as well as active participation in the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Friends of Ukraine Foundation has been active since 2004
We are a member of the "International Staff of Help for Ukrainians" (MSDU) - an organization operating in 75 countries - and have accreditations from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Education of Ukraine.
When Russian troops entered Donbass in 2014, TPU immediately began organizing humanitarian operations. The “Children of Maydan” project was established – treatment in Poland of Ukrainian children in need of urgent medical assistance, living in the area affected by the hostilities. TPU also organized numerous humanitarian convoys to the war-affected Donbass – Rokitno, Mariupol, Pokrovsk. New volunteers, members and partners of our Association helped in the new activities.
Since the escalation of hostilities by the russian army on February 24, 2022, the TPU has begun to organize humanitarian aid on a much larger scale. In just a few days, a network of contacts was established on the Polish and Ukrainian sides of the border. Convoy dispatches, donation collections, assistance to orphaned children, population transports, a temporary housing base and more were launched. A call center was set up so that any Ukrainian refugee could get information in their native language. Volunteers’ phones rang non-stop, red-hot. In no time, a structure was set up that was divided into smoothly functioning divisions: accommodations, accommodation bases, needy bases, transportation, collections, humanitarian convoys, relief convoys, legal advice, psychological assistance.
In the first days-weeks after the Russian attack on Ukraine, more than 300 volunteers were active in the TPU, a base of several hundred drivers, donors was established. The association organized evacuations of orphanages, delivered to the front everything that was and is necessary. Thousands of tons of products, clothes, medicines from Poland and abroad passed through our warehouses. We organized residencies for artists in Poland and abroad, evacuated citizens of other nationalities living in Ukraine. We have helped pregnant women, sometimes at the last minute, we have transported women in labor to hospitals, arranging for them and their children to be cared for during and after childbirth, we have organized hundreds of jobs, provided studying possibilities. We coordinated evacuated students with universities, made it possible to obtain scholarships, grants, continue research work for young scientists from Ukraine.
Currently, we are focusing on providing long-term and structured assistance, giving not only temporary support, but also laying the groundwork for the future – such as developmental and psychological care for children from evacuated Ukrainian orphanages in Garczyn and the mobile homes project.
At the same time, seeing the sense and need, we want to create a HUB – a place that concentrates initiatives, ambitious projects and promotional events linking Poland and Ukraine and providing a center for communication, cooperation and advice on matters concerning Ukraine.
