BASF Stiftung

Employee Donation Campaign #ColleaguesForUkraine

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Peter Ruhenstroth-Bauer, National Director of the UNO-Flüchtlingshilfe, reports on the care of Ukrainian refugees and thanks BASF employees for the donations that make this possible.

What happens with the donations?

2,110,156 € are available for colleagues from Ukraine for reconstruction.

In coordination with our local contacts - including the Managing Director Tiberiu Dima in Ukraine and his team - we disburse the donations for reconstruction. This ensures that the money reaches the people affected - without any deductions.
 

The amount doubled by BASF will directly benefit the Ukrainian refugees as a whole through the UNO-Flüchtlingshilfe, the UNHCR's national partner.

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Video of  UNO-Flüchtlingshilfe:
Thank you to all employees of BASF and BASF SE

We are all completely overwhelmed and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for this immense willingness to help. For our Ukrainian colleagues, many of whom have lost everything, this money will be a great help to build a new life.

Tiberiu Dima

Managing Director BASF Ukraine

The great willingness to help and the solidarity of BASF employees is impressive and I would like to thank each and every one of you very much on behalf of the entire UNO-Flüchtlingshilfe. Thanks to your commitment, we are able to provide the people from Ukraine with the most necessary relief supplies.

Peter Ruhenstroth-Bauer

Managing Director UNO-Flüchtlingshilfe

We guarantee that the money will benefit our Ukrainian colleagues, but any donations received after April 14, 2022 will no longer be matched by BASF.

BASF Stiftung forwards your donations without deductions.
Because BASF doubles the donation of its employees, your donation even has a "double effect".

2,110,156 € are available for colleagues from Ukraine for ongoing support during war, post-war reconstruction and special cases.

The Donation Campaign Committee oversees the decisions on how to use the donation amount, based on input from Ukraine local management team. The amount of the donation will be divided in two equal parts, and used as follows:
 

First half will be used as direct payments towards all BASF Ukraine employees starting mid-June 2022, on a pro-rata basis, factoring in the Feb-May relocation support offered by BASF for part of the employees, as well as the higher level of hardship encountered by those which resided in the official “combat” regions (as defined by Ukrainian government). In other words, BASF Ukraine employees will receive as follows:

a) Those who did not receive relocation support and resided in combat areas during Feb-May will receive the highest pro-rate amount, as they encounter the highest level of hardship.

b) Those who did not receive relocation support and resided in non-combat areas during Feb-May will receive an adjusted amount, as their areas of residence were affected to a lesser extent.

c) Those who benefited from BASF relocation support will receive an amount equal to a), minus the average cost of relocation support during Feb-May.
 

Second half will be used at a later stage (latest before July 2023). This will allow us to understand the full effects of the war and decide accordingly. How much each employee or household ultimately receives depends on the degree of concern (hardly/severely affected, apartment intact/destroyed, immediate family and network affected/injured/deceased, number of people/children living in the household). The priority for second half of the amount will consider families which lost their homes or were permanently displaced or other difficult cases, based on self-disclosure form. If any amount is left after addressing the priority group, the remaining amount will be distributed through pro-rata direct payments to all BASF Ukraine employees.
 

The amount doubled by BASF will benefit the Ukrainian refugees as a whole directly through UN refugee aid, the national partner of UNHCR.
 

Good to know: Regardless of the fundraising campaign #ColleaguesForUkraine, Ukrainian colleagues and their families are currently supported by BASF and BASF Stiftung – both financially and organizationally, e.B. all about accommodation and registration/applications. 

Hundreds of thousands of people have already been forced to leave their homes and apartments, and more than one million people have already fled to Ukraine's neighboring countries. The number of people fleeing is steadily increasing, combined with a high need for humanitarian aid.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has the mandate to help refugees worldwide and is an expert in crisis situations. UNHCR, through its national partner, UNO Flüchtlingshilfe, is also a long-standing partner of BASF Stiftung and has the necessary expertise and networks on the ground to ensure that donations reach where they are most needed:

UNHCR has been active in Ukraine since 1994 and has several locations throughout the country. UNHCR is also active in neighboring Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova. There, the UN Refugee Agency is committed to the reception of refugees and supports national governments in overcoming this challenge.

Key figures of UNHCR current activities taken out of the flash update (April 13, 2022)

  • 196,952 people reached with essential food and non-food items, winter clothes and shelter materials
  • 52,762 people received protection assistance at border crossing points, transit and reception centres and through hotlines
  • 61,099 people enrolled for multipurpose cash assistance. 11,633 already received first payment.
  • 18,900 people received assistance through humanitarian convoys delivered to hard hit areas
  • 60 buildings assessed with local authorities and 13 already being refurbished and supported to increase accommodation capacity

UNHCR’s continued strategic priorities as mentioned in their “Supplementary Appeal April 2022”

  • Stay and deliver protection and life-saving assistance to internally displaced and conflict affected people in Ukraine;
  • Support host countries in ensuring every refugee and asylum seeker from Ukraine has access to safety and international protection, in compliance with the principle of non-refoulement;
  • Support host countries’ provision of humanitarian assistance for refugees and other people of concern fleeing from Ukraine, with a specific focus on the most vulnerable, including mental health needs;
  • Facilitate a whole-of-society response from the outset, in order to support the search for solutions for the refugees from Ukraine; and
  • Fulfil cluster-leading responsibilities in Ukraine and ensure effective coordination of the regional refugee response.

BASF Stiftung collects donations from BASF employees and is responsible for ensuring that the money reaches where it is needed. The donations can be used to help the more than 200 BASF colleagues from Ukraine and other affected persons directly and through the UNITED Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The charitable, non-profit BASF Stiftung supports people in need with the aim of improving their living conditions in the long term. The focus is on health and empowerment. The foundation has a local and global impact and contributes to BASF's corporate strategy. For more than 20 years, the foundation has been involved in disaster relief and works mainly with UN organizations.

BASF's Crisis Team (CMT) Europe immediately supported Ukrainian employees and their families with salary advances, financial aid and, if desired, by moving them to safer areas in western Ukraine or neighboring countries. Nevertheless, most of our Ukrainian BASF colleagues are very worried about their future and have had to leave their homeland. The need for support in the current situation as well as in reconstruction is not yet foreseeable, but difficult consequences are already emerging.

The fundraising campaign can be used to help BASF colleagues from Ukraine and other affected persons directly as well as through the UN refugee agency UNHCR.

The campaign is also a response to the commitment of BASF employees worldwide who have signaled their willingness to donate.

Although it is understandable that you want to help as concretely as possible and for this reason want to make donations in kind, right now experts consider monetary donations to be the better way than donations in kind due to mainly logistic reasons.

The aid organizations procure relief supplies according to the current needs, especially in border regions and in Ukraine itself.

For those reasons we highly recommend to make money donations to our global donation campaign (as these donations are also doubled by BASF). 
If employees want to make donations of goods they can of course do so to the appropriate humanitarian aid organizations after checking their current recommendations.

As employee of BASF please choose the region you are from for support:

Asia / Pacific:  donation@basf.com

Germany & EMEA: hrcontact@basf.com

North America: myHR@basf.com

Ludwigshafen: hrdirekt@basf.com

Mexico & Central America: myHR-Mexico-CA-C@basf.com

South America: csc-rh-atendimento@basf.com

If you are not an employee, please contact donation@basf.com