GlobalGiving provides a lifeline for Lifeline Ukraine
About the author: Paul Niland is the founder of Lifeline Ukraine

Back in the late summer of 2019, the team that would become the backbone of Ukraine’s first national suicide prevention hotline gathered in a hotel conference room in Kyiv to begin the training program that would set them on the road to saving the lives of many of their fellow Ukrainians. As the founder of Lifeline Ukraine, one of the first pledges that I made to my colleagues that morning was that Lifeline Ukraine would never close, and cannot close.

In the more than five years since that day, we have raised a total of $1.75 million US dollars to fund our operations. That sum includes our most recent grant from an American organization called GlobalGiving. The awarding of this grant followed a period when, because we were temporarily unable to meet our operational expenses, the work of Lifeline Ukraine was suspended. For a brief period from April to June 2024, people in Ukraine struggling with some kind of emotional difficulties and needing emergency support had no suicide prevention hotline to turn to.

It is for this reason that I refer to the grant from GlobalGiving as a “lifeline” for Lifeline Ukraine and for everyone who has come to find comfort in our existence. Over this grant period, from July 2024 until June of 2025, GlobalGiving is funding an operation that provides thousands of instances of psychological and emotional support per month. By the end of the grant period, we expect that GlobalGiving and Lifeline Ukraine will have provided something like 50,000 instances of support.

While the impact of this donation is going to be of profound importance to the folks who will turn to Lifeline Ukraine, the ambitions of GlobalGiving in Ukraine actually run even deeper than this. When Russia launched their full-scale war to conquer Ukraine, the folks at GlobalGiving recognized that the needs that would arise from this war required them to act. They embarked upon an ambitious plan to raise at least USD 70 million to help charities in Ukraine address the needs presented by Russia’s invasion. It is this pool of funds that now supports the work of Lifeline Ukraine, and has supported the work of more than 150 other organizations in Ukraine and the surrounding neighborhood.

Examples of other initiatives supported by GlobalGiving’s response to the war include a Ukrainian charity called “Smart Osvita” (“Smart Education”). This charity aims to ensure that students and teachers across Ukraine are able to continue with their education in spite of the war. Even in today’s uniquely challenging wartime conditions, Smart Osvita continues to provide online learning programs, as well as counseling for students and training for teachers.

Another beneficiary is Ukrainian charity “Nezabutni” (“Unforgotten”), which helps individuals and families that have been impacted by dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. This charity operates across Ukraine, and works with people affected by those conditions as well as their caregivers. The GlobalGiving grant that they have received has enabled an expansion of their operations and funded awareness campaigns about dementia.

GlobalGiving has also provided support to Nova Ukraine (“New Ukraine”), a charity that is focused on finding out the kinds of support that hospitals across the country need and then delivering it. One of the most shocking war crimes carried out by Russia in 2024 was the bombing of the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv, a leading specialist hospital treating various forms of childhood cancer. Through Nova Ukraine, GlobalGiving is helping this vital Ukrainian healthcare institution recover.

A final example of the projects receiving support from GlobalGiving takes us out of Ukraine but not away from supporting Ukrainians. A Moldovan charity, AO Katalyst, has also received vital funding from GlobalGiving’s Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund to provide assistance to the many Ukrainian refugees now living in their country. As a result of this grant, AO Katalyst have been able to expand their emergency assistance programs serving Ukrainian refugees displaced to Moldova and increase their staff size and organizational capacity.

Amelia Hoover of GlobalGiving says the organization’s support for Ukraine reflects its mission to accelerate community-led change. “We aim to provide support strategically, centering trust and relationships with our partners in communities other funding may have left behind, in order to ensure that funding reaches under-served or marginalized communities affected by emergencies quickly and flexibly,” she explains.

When Russia decided to launch the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many global visionaries knew they had to act decisively to alleviate some of the impact of the war in areas as diverse as mental health, education, emergency response, or long-term healthcare. GlobalGiving is one such visionary. Ukraine is blessed to have supporters like GlobalGiving looking at ways in which their funding can deliver real, measurable, and meaningful support through local partners on the ground.

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