Besharam Launches Fundraiser for Fleeing Ukrainian Families

CYBERSPACE—India-based adult retailer Besharam has spearheaded an emergency assistance effort for Ukrainian families who are crossing the border into Poland as Ukraine sustains an ongoing military attack from Russia. Along with a team of four local volunteers and their own staff, Besharam principals Raj Armani and Muz Shafi are planning to set up station beginning March 14 at the Polish border, where they intend to remain for two weeks in order to provide support to at least 100 families with safe housing, food and basic necessities, as well as transport if the evacuees are seeking jobs in the local communities. To be able to meet this goal, Besharam has launched a GoFundMe Fundraiser here. Commented Armani, who is the co-founder of Besharam, “My wife is Ukrainian, I got married in Kherson, Ukraine which is currently occupied, and 35 percent of my team are Ukrainians. We were extremely impacted when the war broke out, and it was just a mere coincidence I flew back that same weekend from Europe instead of heading to Kyiv. As we monitor the daily news, we realize the scale of inhumanity against the fellow Ukrainians and while the governments of the world are supporting the country, we felt a deep rooted conviction that we can do something to help."Before launching this fundraiser, Besharam made several donations to support Ukrainian Army welfare and NGOs, and was able to financially assist six employee and network families with leaving Ukraine, finding places to stay and covering most of their urgent survival needs.  On the campaign page for Besharam's GoFundMe effort, Armani noted, "These funds will provide immediate relief to the distressed families arriving at the [Polish] border, by getting them a safe (shared) accommodation, food, basic necessities, child care and transportation for a day, week or a month, as long as they need to recover from the trauma of the cirsis. We are working in partnership with a network of Polish and Ukrainian volunteers who are involved day in and day out with the refugee assistance and support initiatives at Przemyśl, Warsaw & Medyka crossing, which sees about 50,000 - 70,000 people crossing everyday." He went on to add, "We will bear our expenses, flights, accommodation and food. To maintain complete transparency, we will maintain a google sheet that the donors can access to validate the expenses and offer the ability to contact the recipients to verify this as well." To learn more and to donate, click here.