Financial Planners Phil Billingham, David Crozier and Shannon Currie provide an update on their long-running campaign to raise money and support the people of war-torn Ukraine and refugees in neighbouring Moldova.

Readers will recall the success of the Financial Planning profession’s ‘Rock For Ukraine’ concert in February 2023, at the one year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

And here we are, almost a year later, and seemingly no closer to an end of the suffering. While it’s been a little quiet in public, we as a group - Phil Billingham, Shannon Currie and David Crozier (all three are Certified Financial Planners) - have still been busy behind the scenes.

In March David (of Navigator Financial Planning) and his wife Gail spent 2 weeks in Chisinau in Moldova, a country neighbouring Ukraine which has taken many refugees, volunteering at the Dignity Centre, run by Refugee Support EU.

It was clear from their experience that the ‘shape’ of the aid and support required had shifted. The days of mad dashes with vans to borders is long gone. Its about integration of the refugees into normal life – schools, jobs, accommodation and everyday living.

It’s vital to support Moldova in being able to provide this infrastructure. While Moldova has made great strides since Tony Hawkes wrote about Chisinau in 2001 in his book “Playing the Moldovans at Tennis”, it remains one of the poorest countries in Europe (after Ukraine) and its hard for them with a small population of only 2.5 million to support these refugees on their own. But boy they do try hard.

Refugee Support still need volunteers, so who fancies 2 weeks in a nice city, very affordable, great street sculpture and very nice wine? Or you can just donate here: https://www.refugeesupporteu.com/donate/

The good news is that Rock For Ukraine 2 is being planned for early 2024, so news will follow soon. Watch this space.

When we saw the effect on the local population affected by the destruction of the Kherson Dam in June, we used the very last of the initial donations – thank you all – to donate money to help out with water purification equipment. And we managed to get a truckload of mobility aids across to Moldova as well.

Images from the campaign

Another truckload of supplies unloaded at Moldova for Peace, Chișinău, Moldova 

Street sign in Odesa - how to identify what's about to kill you!

Noticeboard in the foyer of the humanitarian centre in Odesa, showing the organisations that support them

L-R Shannon Currie, Phil Billingham, David Crozier, Ivan Liptuga, director, Department of Culture, Odesa

L-R Phil Billingham, Shannon Currie, David Crozier at a border crossing between Moldova & Ukraine, delivering aid in Cairaclia, Moldova

The three of us then returned to Moldova in October, really to see what had moved on, and we were lucky enough to be able to take a day and visit Odesa in Ukraine. We met two truly remarkable people.

Diane (who Shannon has saved on her phone as ‘Diane the Lion’) runs the biggest humanitarian centre in all Ukraine (they have the Guinness World Records certificate to prove it). In a room with windows crossed with blast tape, she tells of the 1,000 people she serves every day, of which 400 are children.

They are permanently short of baby formula and she talks of the programmes for the mental health for woman who need to stay strong for partners and children and who are reluctant to admit they have a problem. The baby formula seems to be the ongoing battle. It's possible to obtain it, but it's getting the money to buy it. And it's time critical – babies can't wait.

On a more basic level, they explained about the orphanages with basement bomb shelters that are grey concrete and totally unsuitable for children. They can't be easily be brightened up because it's too expensive to decorate them with paint that dries within two hours, because that's all the notice they'll get before the next bombs fall. (But we have a cunning plan…)

Then there's Ivan, director of culture in the Odesa government, who only has time to answer his emails after 11pm, who took three-quarters of an hour out of what was a ridiculously busy day to thank us for coming to Odesa.

Anything we can do: he doesn't care if it's £1,000 or £100,000, he will find a way to make it count. Oh, and even if you can't do anything, “Thank you for coming, it's enough to know that we've not been forgotten.”

Two things struck us.

The first was the focus on helping ‘Internally Displaced People’ (IDP) stay in Ukraine as far as they possibly can. These people often turn up with literally nothing except the clothes on their back, and what they can carry in their hands.

They are clear that Ukraine is the people, not the country, and are very aware of the huge numbers of Ukrainians who fled the terribly destructive early days of the war, but now – almost two years later – are making their lives in Moldova, Germany, Canada and the UK.

That’s a massive loss to the country, and they are looking for support to help keep them in Ukraine. One day – eventually - the war will be over, and the country will need to be rebuilt. They will need every single person they can get to do that.

The second thing that struck us was when we spoke to Ivan, he really thought Odesa would be overrun within a week. Even now, the frontline is only 60 miles away – an hour’s drive. To begin with, the only defence of the city was by local territorial units. He spoke of donning chef’s whites and cooking 90,00 meals for the local troops until the regular army were able to get organised. He spoke of Odesa being a UNESCO world heritage old city, for which he is responsible, and the Cathedral being deliberately targeted with missiles – we saw the aftermath of that for ourselves.

As we left him, he shared a short Google walking tour of the city. Despite the military presence and the damaged buildings, it's truly lovely city, with people in the shops, bars and restaurants all trying to get on as if life was normal. Which it clearly isn't.

We'll be back. To help, if we can, but we'll be back anyway. And if you can help us, that will be greatly appreciated. Not just by supporting us, but also those who – through no fault of their own – continue to find their lives turned upside down. Every little does help.

By Shannon Currie CFP (Perceptive Planning) / David Crozier CFP (Navigator Financial Planning) / Phil Billingham CFP (Perceptive Planning). Phil Billingham contact details: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. David Crozier contact details: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.