Support for Ukraine

Member Resources > Support for Ukraine

As Ukraine faces the horrors of war, the Television Academy joins the global community in standing with its people and condemning its invasion by Russia. In support, we offer some ways to help.

When it comes to examining current events through a media lens, the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center is one of the best sources of information.

On April 6, the Center presented Back to the Future: Russia's Invasion and Averting Catastrophe, an online discussion about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the storytelling opportunities that reflect this new world.

Moderator David Grae (executive producer-writer for the CBS drama Madam Secretary and several other series) and a panel of experts discussed the threat of nuclear war, avoiding another Chernobyl, chemical and biological threats, cyber warfare and 21st-century diplomacy and more.

Click here to watch a replay of the April 6 "Averting Catastrophe" event.

Since the day after the attack from Russia began in February, World Central Kitchen — established by renowned chef and humanitarian José Andrés and his wife, Patricia — has been serving meals to people impacted by the violence in Ukraine. To date, they have served more than a million meals to families in Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Moldova and Hungary.

Established in 1918, the Ukrainian Red Cross has been providing life-saving assistance to those affected by crises ever since. These include World War II, Chernobyl and, now, the invasion by Russia. Services include first aid and medical care, sanitation services, psychosocial support and more.

The International Committee of the Red Cross works closely with the Ukrainian Red Cross to assist those in need due to the war. Its humanitarian efforts include the deployment of water engineers and doctors to provide clean water and medical assistance to those in need due to the devastation of war.

With a mission of "restoring hope and opportunity in the lives of those most affected by disasters," the Global Empowerment Mission has teams on the ground in Medyka, Poland, at the Ukraine border working closely with Ukrainian partners. Assistance provided by donations includes the purchase of train and airplane tickets for refugees to unite them with family or friends in Europe.

The Voices of Children Foundation is committed to helping children in any way possible to cope with the trauma of war and disasters. "Our objective," says its website, "is that every child who has suffered from the war in Ukraine must get psychological help in time." In that effort, the organization is working with families as well as displaced children to provide urgent services and assist with the evacuation process.

Another organization devoted to children is the United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF, which was founded in 1946 and has a presence in 192 countries. The invasion of Ukraine has taken an unimaginable toll on the nation's civilian population of 3.5 million, which includes more than 500,000 children. Donations to UNICEF are 100 percent tax-deductible and are used to provide Ukraine's children access to safe water, nutrition, health care, education and protection. Less than 3 percent of UNICEF funds go to administrative costs.

Devoted to health-focused relief, Americares has an Emergency Response Team in Poland to deliver medicine and medical supplies, support health services and provide mental health and psychosocial support for refugees and survivors coping with trauma.

An estimated 80,000 refugees from Ukraine enter Poland every day, many accompanied by pets. The IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) is an international nonprofit dedicated to helping animals and people thrive together. The IFAW has an emergency response team in Poland working with veterinary authorities to process refugees from Ukraine and their pets. Polish veterinary teams are processing 500 to 600 animals per day, and have vaccinated and microchipped more than 12,000 animals since the war began.

A greater appreciation for the history, diversity and psychology of Ukraine can be gleaned from reading its writers. Notable among them are past figures such as poets Taras Shevchenko and Lesya Ukrainka, humorist Mikhail Bulgakov and novelist Isaac Babel, all of whom are mentioned in an illuminating survey of Ukrainian literature recently published by the BBC. Also included are contemporary novelists Andrey Kurkov and Oksana Zabuzhko. Zabuzhko first achieved fame in her homeland with the 1996 novel Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex, which drew attention for its frank examination of relationships from a woman's perspective. Her most recent book is the short story collection Your Ad Could Go Here. In an address to the European Parliament on March 8 — International Women's Day — Zabuzhko said, ''I cannot but admire my fellow women fighting alongside our men, managing the distribution of supplies across our besieged cities and giving birth in bomb shelters, supervised by doctors online. The problem is Putin's bombs will not be stopped by the strength of our spirit.'' Zabuzhko and five other of-the-moment Ukrainian writers to know are spotlighted in this recent article from Tablet.

Before he became Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a comedian and actor who, shortly before pursuing politics, was the star of Servant of the People, a popular television comedy that aired from 2015 to 2019. In the show, Zelenskyy plays Vasiliy Petrovich Goloborodko, an earnest history teacher who, through a series of coincidences and contrivances, becomes...president of Ukraine. With echoes of James Stewart's Jefferson Smith in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation, Goloborodko is an unpretentious idealist who only wants to, as the title says, serve the people — a tall order in a nation fraught with cynicism and government corruption. An analysis of the show and Zelenskyy's unlikely, life-imitates-art path from TV president to the real thing is presented in this article from Variety. If you would like to see it for yourself, episodes are now available on Netflix.

updated 4.11.22