The 9dollarclub helping the people of Ukraine

The ongoing invasion of Ukraine has been a devastating experience for millions of innocent Ukrainian citizens. In addition to the horrific loss of life, countless families are without the bare essentials of survival such as food, water and electricity. Daily news stories leave us all wanting to do something more. 

In an effort to help, the 9dollarclub has reached out to multiple organizations who are finding ways to help provide the essentials to the Ukrainian refugees. 

We were drawn to a company called MPOWERD. As a certified B-Corp (Benefit Corporation), this organization is committed to sustainability and social responsibility and put “good” ahead of profits in a programmatic way that shapes the fabric of this company’s culture. MPOWERD reserves 10% of their manufactured products for deployment in natural disasters and international crisis. One of MPOWERD's innovative products is a solar powered battery pack lantern that enables people to remain connected with mobile device charging capability and duel solar powered light lanterns for long blackout periods.

MPOWERD is partnered together with Good360 which donated over 1 Billion in goods last year. Good360 has the supply chain and network of on the ground partners in Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Hungary to get need items from the US, into containers and delivered to the front line. We spoke with Jim Alvey of Good360 who shared some insights on the why the solar powered lights are a need item. "Many of the displaced Ukrainian refugees are living in temporary shelters that are often warehouse buildings and abandoned shopping malls in Poland and Romania. These devices are long lasting that help with low light areas and staying connected with their mobile device recharging capability." 

Lulu Aguinaco is the "operational impact leader" for MPOWERD who we also connected with. The 9dollarclub has worked out an arrangement with MPOWERD to purchase the below listed "Luci Base Light" product for $25 each - a 50% discount as part of MPOWERD's commitment to helping out in times of global crisis. They are going to send a shipment to Ukraine by the end of the April and are excited to have us as a volunteer partner ready to help purchase as many lanterns as possible. 

For the month of April, the 9dollarclub will be purchasing $750 worth of the Luci base lights - this equates to 30 devices and we want to hopefully do m

In addition to our 9dollarclub monthly member donation amount, we are opening up a special matching donation window to see if we can raise additional funds to be specifically used to purchase more of these devices.  

If you would be interested in purchasing additional Luci light devices as a way to directly help the people of Ukraine, please donate using the below form with a credit card or separately you can send a Venmo pay request to @ninedollarclub. The units are $25 each and we are accepting donations in any increment of $25 (i.e. purchase 2 units would be $50).