Two AU colleagues start a fundraiser for Ukraine

“We’re fully aware that there’s very little that we can do. But we also feel strongly that we have to do what we can. So we’ve started a fund drive on the Red Cross website – in hopes that many of our colleagues here at AU feel the same way.” 

These words were written by graphic designer Gudrun Frost-Søgaard and language consultant Lenore Messick, both from Events and Communication Support, in an email they sent to colleagues at Aarhus University. In the email, they explain that they started the fundraiser via the Red Cross in order to help the people of Ukraine. The fundraiser is called AU staff and students stand with Ukraine.

“We almost couldn’t bring ourselves to send the email, but, on the other hand, we desperately needed to do something. And it makes a difference to support something as a community. It helps to turn a feeling of individual powerlessness into a meaningful collective contribution.   So, after work on Tuesday, we set up the fundraiser and sent the link to our department and close colleagues – and it took off from there,” explains Lenore Messick. 

“We wanted to activate the good community and the good values we have here at AU,” says Lenore Messick, who underlines that the fundraiser is on behalf of AU staff and students and not AU as an institution.

The fundraiser total currently stands at DKK 34,100.

“Every little bit helps,” says Lenore Messick, who refers to an AU fundraiser in 2015 in which, through individual contributions, staff and students collectively raised DKK 129,057 for refugees. The fundraiser AU#Refugees-welcome was started by two students and two associate professors at AU, who raised money as part of the Danish Refugee Council’s nationwide appeal. 

DKK 129,057 …

Translated by Sarah Jennings