At the heart of our operations are trust and efficiency, which has been cultivated through sustained engagement on the ground, allowing us to build...

Charles Tiné, tech entrepreneur originally from France and now residing in Montreal, shares his journey from the tech industry to humanitarian efforts. After selling his cybersecurity company in 2021, he engaged in consulting projects. Witnessing the Ukraine crisis, he felt compelled to contribute, embarking on a journey to the Ukraine-Poland border. Charles played a pivotal role at the Tesco Centre, providing aid to 1,500 refugees daily. Facing unprecedented challenges, he created solutions on the fly. Post two and a half months in Ukraine, Charles returned to Canada and, reflecting on his experiences, co-founded The Small Projects Team in 2022. The team leverages fundraising proficiency to finance on-the-ground projects. In the interview with LDaily, Charles Tiné shared insights into The Small Projects Team and its pivotal role in providing support during humanitarian crises.

LDaily: Please tell us a bit about yourself and your experience. How did the idea for the creation of The Small Projects Team originate?

C. Tiné: My name is Charles Tiné. I am 58, originally from France but now residing in Montreal, Canada. My career has primarily been in the tech industry, where I’ve been an entrepreneur for the last 25 years. My journey began with founding a domain name registration company, which later expanded into cybersecurity, focusing on brand and online protection. In 2021, I sold this company and spent the following year engaged in various consulting projects.

My involvement in humanitarian efforts was began during a visit to my children in France, coinciding with the onset of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February. Witnessing the global reaction to the crisis, I felt an urgent need to contribute, I could not just stay like that without doing anything. Being just a couple of hours away from both Poland and Ukraine, despite battling COVID-19 at the time, I went on a journey to Krakow after my quarantine period had ended. I then took a train ride to the Ukraine-Poland border, unprepared for the scenes I would encounter, but driven by a desire to help.

The response to the humanitarian crisis was nothing short of remarkable. Thousands of trucks, filled with aid, arrived daily from every corner of the globe. This outpouring of support was the grassroots nature of the organization, driven by individuals from various countries coming together with a singular purpose to help. This collective effort was not only inspiring but also remarkably efficient. At the Tesco Centre, we managed to provide assistance to approximately 1,500 refugees each day. Our focus was on those seeking refuge in countries other than Poland. For those opting to stay in Poland, other arrangements were made to direct them to Krakow or Warsaw. However, for those looking to move to other countries, the Tesco Centre became their first stop, where we had set up various desks categorized by country – French, UK, Swedish, among others. Each desk was manned by volunteers from the respective countries, ready to offer tailored support to the refugees.

Our task was to find transportation, foster families, and provide information on immigration processes – challenges none of us had ever faced before. We were essentially creating the plane as it was flying. After spending around a month and a half at the centre, I moved to Lviv for another month to continue our efforts. Then, my wife, in Montreal, asked me, “Are you going to stay in Ukraine all your life?” as I found myself repeatedly saying, “I’ll come back next week,” week after week. Eventually, she expressed her scepticism, “I don’t believe you. You initially said you’d stay for two weeks.” Altogether I stayed for two and a half months.

I then went to Lviv where at the time accurate information was key for people’s decision making. It was important for us to inform refugees while they were still in Ukraine, whether they wanted to go to Poland or other countries. After the Battle of Kyiv the initial flow of people wanting to leave the country began to subside and decisions about whether to stay in Ukraine or leave became more complex for people. To address this, we set up an information desk at Lviv train station. However, our operations at the train station had to be re-evaluated following the tragic shelling of the Kramatorsk station. The authorities requested us to relocate from the train stations, which had become potential targets. After that I moved around different organizations volunteering before returning to Canada, thinking what contributions I could make from there. Reflecting on my experiences, I discussed my ideas with colleagues I had met during this time. Together, we thought about how to structure our efforts more effectively. This led to the inception of The Small Projects Team in August of 2022, initially known as The Small Project Fund. The core idea was to leverage my proficiency in fundraising to finance projects that could be executed on the ground by our partners.

LDaily: What are the main goals and mission of The Small Projects Team?

C. Tiné: At its core, The Small Projects Team is a grassroots organization, deeply rooted in the values of partnership and trust. Unlike larger entities, our approach is characterized by our agility and rapid response to needs, which we like to refer to as ‘humanitarian instant impact.’ Despite operating on modest budgets, our operational model ensures that funds are deployed swiftly and effectively the moment they are received.

Our experiences have taught us that traditional funding processes can be cumbersome and slow, which is impractical when immediate action is needed. Hence, we assure our donors of the efficiency and immediacy of their contributions, promising action and tangible results within a short timeframe.

In our work we are purchasing a variety of supplies ranging from first aid kits for communities in Kherson Oblast to refurbished computers collected in France that we distribute to kids in family orphanages in Kharkiv Oblast. This direct and cost-effective approach means we are making every penny count towards the cause. Our organization thrives on volunteerism, ensuring that 100% of donations are channelled directly into projects. Even our personal expenses incurred during missions, such as my travel from Canada to Ukraine, are covered out of pocket.

LDaily: What criteria and processes guide your selection of humanitarian micro-projects?

C. Tiné: At the heart of our operations are trust and efficiency, which has been cultivated through sustained engagement on the ground, allowing us to build enduring partnerships. Our activities span across various regions, including Kharkiv, Kherson, Ivankiv, and Lviv, where we collaborate with partners we have known and trusted for a considerable duration.

Initially, we engaged with several organizations at the beginning of the full-scale invasion but had to cease collaborations with some due to a lack of transparency and inadequate reporting.

Our projects have varied widely, from providing generators during the winter to installing wood stoves, among other initiatives and we’ve sometimes had to be very careful on the choice of beneficiaries in the case of high-value items like radiators, where tracking their deployment and their true usage by the people in need was sometime difficult.

To uphold our commitment to our donors, it’s imperative that we ensure the integrity of our partnerships and the accountability of our reporting. Our promise to donors is a pledge of transparency, ensuring that every contribution is traceable, directly impacting the intended beneficiaries. This commitment extends to providing tangible evidence of our work, such as videos, photographs and other methods.

LDaily: Do you interact with local communities during the implementation of humanitarian projects? How are their needs assessed?

C. Tiné: The projects we undertake are those proposed to us by our partners, not dictated from top to bottom. We routinely consult with our partners each month, inquiring, for example, “What do you need most this month? Is there a need for generators this winter?” Last year, the response was, “No, the electrical power is more reliable than before, so there’s no need for additional generators.”

We appreciate when our partners can transparently tell us “No, we don’t need that.” It reflects honesty and transparency, especially compared to past experiences where we were told “Yes, we need everything,” without clear project needs. I particularly value when someone tells me, “I need hygiene kits, but not generators.” This direct communication with our partners allows us to accurately assess local needs.

Based on these assessments, we then allocate specific funding to meet the identified needs. Our approach is agnostic; we don’t prioritize one demographic over another, but focus solely on civilian needs, steering clear of any military involvement. While I might personally support the army through other initiatives, The Small Projects Team remains dedicated to humanitarian action alone.

LDaily: How does your team allocate resources to achieve its goals?

C. Tiné: We focus on smaller-scale projects, typically ranging between 5,000 and 20,000 euros, rather than extensive initiatives or operating large centers. For instance, a contribution of 500 euros from a donor is directly allocated to one of our ongoing projects.

Decision-making on project selection is crucial and often challenging, as it involves setting priorities. The dilemma could be choosing between sending first aid kits to the elderly in Kherson Oblast or providing computers for home schooling to children in Kharkiv. We have tried to address immediate needs, such as creating micro-libraries in IDP centers to support children’s education, as we believe it is vital to preserve the Ukrainian language, and maintain cultural identity, especially after the destruction of Ukrainian books in newly liberated villages that had very little left.

We received requests from IDP centers in Lviv, a relatively peaceful city compared to others. This led us to debate whether to prioritize giving books for people in Lviv or Kharkiv. Ultimately, we decided to also support initiatives in cities like Lviv, recognizing that children in IDP shelters, regardless of location, have undergone traumatic experiences. This approach exemplifies our method of determining priorities and ensuring that our aid is delivered swiftly and effectively.

LDaily: What are the main challenges that your team faces?

C. Tiné: Logistics within Ukraine are quite efficient, thanks to services like Nova Poshta, and the strong network of volunteers and partners we have on the ground. However, we occasionally encounter challenges in transporting items from outside Ukraine, particularly in our case from France. Given that we’re a French-based organization, albeit with my residence in Canada, transporting items like computers collected in France to Kharkiv presents unique challenges. While it’s straightforward to move items from Lviv to Kharkiv, the journey from Paris to Lviv can be complex, often requiring us to wait for partners’ assistance. This was much simpler in the early days of the conflict when many convoys were operational.

Currently, as global interest in Ukraine’s situation wanes, there’s a noticeable decline in humanitarian donations and volunteer involvement, making the transit across Europe from France to Ukraine more challenging than before. We avoid using professional transport services because they are dreadfully expensive – it’s nonsensical to spend 3,000 euros for transporting items worth 2,000 euros. Hence, we depend heavily on our partnership network, covering essential expenses like fuel. Unfortunately, the availability of such volunteer-based organizations is diminishing.

And of course, our main challenge is funding. Global interest and press coverage of what is happening in Ukraine has dramatically faded over the past months, directly impacting the amount of donations we receive. Today for us the key is to continue to reach and convince new donors, as the ones who have helped us for the past two years have done their share and cannot, in most cases, do more than what they have done so far. Our main donors today are SME’s, usually giving between 500 and 10 000 euros and we pay a lot of attention to create inspiring and bespoke reporting that they, for instance, can use in their global communication.

LDaily: How can individuals or organizations participate in your projects?

C. Tiné: Well of course, we have social networks and a website, where they can contact us. After two years, you can imagine that we’ve built a vast network of volunteers, individuals we’ve met on the ground. Personally, I visit Ukraine every three months to meet with these people. Additionally, we’re part of a significant network of international volunteers. Through this network, we often receive requests.

For instance, three weeks ago, through our international partner network, we met with an organization dedicated to helping pets, specifically cats, based in Odesa. They were in desperate need of a new surgical table for their vet, a need we became aware of through their WhatsApp group post. Within minutes, we decided to purchase the surgical table for them, costing around 350 euros. It was a swift decision, embodying our principle of ‘instant impact.’ The speed of our response was so unexpected that the vet was shocked, he could not believe it, having just launched a call for help. Being a small organization allows us to swiftly determine what’s crucial for us and where we can make an immediate, tangible impact.

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