May 7—COLUMBIA — As Russia wages war on Ukraine, Columbia is looking to help the Ukrainians caught in the conflict.
At the Board of Selectmen meeting on April 19, Town Administrator Mark Walter asked the board to find out more information on the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund.
The Ukraine Humanitarian Fund is one of the United Nations’ country-based pooled funds to benefit embattled Ukrainians.
To finance the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ ( OCHA) activities, five percent of the Office’s annual budget is funded from the United Nations Regular Budget and the rest is reliant on voluntary contributions.
OCHA’s extra administrative budget is seven percent of the overall budget, which is $300.8 million.
Selectman Lisa Napolitano suggested the town look at Charity Navigator, an organization that evaluates hundreds of thousands of charitable organizations based in the United States. This will help the town find a charity who will successfully deliver the funds to the people of Ukraine. ” I just don’t trust the big government banks, they get sucked up by corrupt politicians,” Napolitano said.
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