NEBRASKANS FOR PEACE

Dear members of Nebraskans for Peace and peacemakers in general,

Please consider donating to one or more of the organizations listed below, known to be responsible organizations and recommended by Global Citizen. The Ukrainian need is dire.

How Can I Help?
While many of us might feel helpless when confronted with geopolitical machinations of this scale, we’ve rounded up some ways you can help the people of Ukraine right now.
DONATE
Organizations on the ground and globally are actively supporting people within Ukraine and refugees seeking safety elsewhere with medical and humanitarian aid.
These organizations include:

1. People in Need is providing humanitarian aid to over 200,000 people on the ground. For those most in need, they provide food packages, emergency shelter, safe access to drinking water, hygiene items, and coal for heating. Donate here: https://www.peopleinneed.net/donate/once?amount=1000&accountId=7

2. The Ukrainian Red Cross does loads of humanitarian work, from aiding refugees to training doctors. Donate here: https://redcross.org.ua/en/donate/

3. The International Medical Corps is on the front lines and prepared to help citizens with emergency health care services, as well as mental health and psychosocial support. The agency is also keeping the pandemic top of mind throughout the crisis by prioritizing COVID-19 awareness and prevention services, to help keep displaced citizens safe from the pandemic. Donate here: https://give.internationalmedicalcorps.org/page/99837/donate/1?ea.tracking.id=DP~UA22~DPHHU2202

4. CARE International is responding to the crisis by providing Ukrainians in need with food, hygiene kits, psychosocial support services, access to water, and access to cash. Donate here:
https://my.care.org/site/Donation2?df_id=31071&mfc_pref=T&31071.donation=form1&s_src=172220UCFM00&s_subsrc=FY22UkraineCrisisFundMO

5. Nova Ukraine is a nonprofit that delivers aid packages to Ukraine with everything from baby food and hygiene products, to clothes and household supplies. Donate here: https://novaukraine.org/

6. UNICEF is repairing schools damaged by the bombings and providing an emergency response to children affected by the conflict. Donate here:
https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/amid-stress-and-sorrow-support-families-fleeing-ukraine/

7. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency has stepped up its operations and is working with governments in neighboring countries "calling on them to keep borders open to those seeking safety and protection.” You can help support the UNHCR's work supporting refugees by sending a tweet urging governments and businesses to support the United Nations' urgent appeal for $1.7 billion to deliver life-saving humantarian support. Donate here: https://donate.unhcr.org/int/en/general#_ga=2.33590689.1083292833.1645717134-590708463.1645444824

8. OutRight Action is helping support LGBTQ+ groups and organizations on the ground, setting up shelters and providing safety for citizens. All donations made to OutRight will go directly to the cause. You can donate here:
https://outrightinternational.org/ukraine?form=Ukraine

9. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is deploying emergency operations in Ukraine and surrounding countries to provide food assistance to those fleeing the conflict. Donate here:
https://secure.wfpusa.org/donate/save-lives-giving-food-today-donate-now-7?ms=2000_UNR_wfp_redirect_EX&redirected=US.

10. Save the Children is working with partners to respond to meet the urgent needs of affected children and their families. It's ready to provide life-saving assistance, such as food, water, cash transfers, and safe places for children as people flee amid freezing temperatures and brutal conditions, and to scale up oprtions to ensure children impacted by the crisis have the support they need. Find out more and donate here: https://support.savethechildren.org/site/Donation2?df_id=5751&mfc_pref=T&5751.donation=form1

11. Mercy Corps is mobilizing a team to the region to assess where help is most needed, and is anticipating providing emergency cash assistance, as well as supporting local organizations that know their community needs best. Between 2015 and 2017, Mercy Corps provided humanitarian assistance in eastern Ukraine, reaching more than 200,000 people with emergency cash, food, water, and sanitation supplies, small business development grants, restoring war-damaged homes and more. Find out more and donate here: https://www.mercycorps.org/donate/crisis-ukraine-give-now

12. Medical Teams International is fundraising to send medical supplies to the region, with all procees going towards sending medicines and/or medical supplies. Learn more and donate here: https://give.medicalteams.org/ukraine.htm

Nebraskans for Peace statement on the beginning of the war in Ukraine:
Nebraskans for Peace believes that the Russian invasion into eastern Ukraine and escalation of hostilities in the whole Ukraine area is a matter of the greatest concern. Nebraskans for Peace’s central commitment is carried in a statement on its website, “Nebraskans for Peace is committed to the creative, nonviolent resolution of conflict and views war as a practical failure at peacemaking. Confronting violence with violence, we believe, will never create the conditions for peace.” In that light, Nebraskans for Peace believes that the escalation of hostilities in the whole Ukraine area is dangerous as the United States and Russia are the two largest nuclear powers in the world. Credible analysts have asserted that once a hot war gets started in Ukraine, it will be very difficult to prevent its escalation to nuclear exchanges. The board of Nebraskans for Peace calls on our leaders to attempt the following actions:

Renew negotiations to end the longstanding conflict in the Donbas region and the recent one in Ukraine as a whole and keep negotiations going despite their difficulty in the present circumstances. The U.S. needs to call for an immediate cease fire in the Donbas and Ukraine.
Negotiate to allow Ukraine to be militarily neutral without joining NATO or any Russian military alliance while encouraging stability within the country and economic development. In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, the U.S., the U.K., and Russia agreed to guarantee Ukraine’s security if it gave up its nuclear weapons. Russia is in clear violation of this agreement.
Negotiate -- with Russia, NATO, the European Union, and other concerned actors -- the creation of a stable European security architecture that reduces nukes, ballistic missiles, and border tensions in Eastern Europe and Ukraine. On the agenda in such negotiations should be the possibility of the dissolution of NATO, given that the Russian/Soviet/Eastern Europe similar security pact, the Warsaw Pact, dissolved over thirty years ago.
Develop talks with Russia and the European Union on matters of common interest, including climate change, the Covid pandemic, extremism, and the immigrant crisis that affects almost all northern hemisphere nations.
Commit ourselves and the European Union to allow the neutrality and self-determination to such nations as Ukraine; nations placed in a buffer position should not be asked to threaten anyone else.
Encourage the media and sources of information to give a full background on Ukraine and Russia, their historic interactions, and American dealings in Ukraine in recent years.
Avoid the tendency to extend the reach of American arms to the whole world; avoid the creation of a Pax Americana. We should ask other nations-- including Russia-- who are arming other parts of the world to pull back from armament sales that create military tensions at the same time as we ask the European nations to pay their own way in the business of defending themselves.

We congratulate the Russian Peace movement on its courage and resistance to an entirely unnecessary war.

MISSION STATEMENT
Nebraskans for Peace is a statewide grassroots advocacy organization working nonviolently for Peace with Justice through community building, education and political action.

2021 Priorities
Anti-War & International Law
Civil Rights & Economic Justice
Environment & Conflict Prevention

"Nothing changes unless someone is made to feel uncomfortable.

Nothing changes unless we make ourselves uncomfortable."

-- Frank LaMere, Native American Activist

Since 1970

Four themes have defined Nebraskans for Peace virtually from its inception: the search for peace through negotiation and especially through the reduction of nuclear armaments; the pursuit of nonviolence; an opposition to globalization that gives untrammeled power to multinational corporations; and an assertion that we will not stand by while the rights of persons of color and other marginalized populations in our society are trampled.

"Nothing changes unless someone is made to feel uncomfortable.Nothing changes unless we make ourselves uncomfortable."

-- Frank LaMere, Native American Activist

"Nothing changes unless someone is made to feel uncomfortable.

Nothing changes unless we make ourselves uncomfortable."