Sunflower Relief is a grassroots volunteer-led network that aims to connect the immediate needs of Ukrainian locals with immediate local solutions, emergency supplies, services, support, and capture first-hand accounts of the evolving situation on the ground to share with the wider world.
100,000+
volunteer hours
£3,000,000
funds matched
250,000+
people helped
800+
cases
Read interview with Sunflower film director.
About us
Sunflower Relief is a not-for-profit social entreprise founded by Ukrainian-born, London-based entrepreneur Irra Ariella Khi, CEO of Zamna, whose software provides organisations with the capability to manage identity on a global scale without the use of smart devices or digital identity apps. Sunflower aims to direct Ukrainian humanitarian relief more effectively – from providing logistics assistance to people trying to reach the border to getting medical supplies and food out to the millions of stranded citizens who remain in a war zone as the Russian invasion continues.
Sunflower Relief is backed by Phoenix Court Works Ltd and other partners to be announced soon, has already signed up more than 200 part-time and 20 full-time volunteers based in Ukraine, London and other European hubs. It is now on a massive global recruitment drive to encourage further Ukrainian, Russian and Polish speakers to join its network.
What we do
Immediate aid
in Ukraine
Emergency supplies and services
Reliable hyper-local eyewitness stories
Founding partners
Sherry Coutu, MBE
Serial entrepreneur and tech investor
Ella Goldner
Co-founder and general manager at Zinc VC
Lyuba Guk
Founding partner
of Blue Lake VC
Gary Stewart
Founder and CEO of FounderTribes
Saul Klein
Phoenix Court Works Ltd, LocalGlobe
Samir Desai, CBE
Founder of Funding Circle
Paul Murphy
Partner at Lightspeed
Jonathan Luff
Cofounder at CyLon/Epsilon
Brent Hoberman
Co-founder and chairman at Founders Factory/Founders Forum
Remus Brett
Phoenix Court Works Ltd, LocalGlobe
Mei Wen
Founding partner at Yinvest
Ben Marrel
Managing partner at Breega
Grace Cassy
Cofounder at CyLon/Epsilon
Reshma Sohoni
Founding Partner at Seedcamp
Check Warner
Partner at Ada Ventures
Jenny Tooth, OBE
Chief executive at UKBAA
Rajeeb Dey, MBE
CEO of Learnerbly
Penny McCormick
CEO at Concepta
Who we work with
We believe the West’s support for Ukraine is admirable, but at the top level, this is predominantly focused on equipping the military, while organisations’ humanitarian efforts have been hampered by a lack of understanding about genuine needs on-the-ground. Sunflower Relief exists to better align these aid efforts with citizens’ most urgent priorities. We are focused on building solutions to connect the immediate needs of the people to the immediate solutions at hand. If you need a driver to get a family to safety from A to B, you need it now and you need resources to find you that driver now. If you need a certain medical supply delivered to a certain location, we find a way to source it and get it there as fast as possible. It’s micro logistics, in a war zone, in three local languages.
