Riding for Refugees (Fundraising Appeal)

My children have Ukrainian refugee children in their classes. They are here in Denmark with their mothers, while their fathers fight for their lives back home.

My children have been told not to ask about their Ukrainian classmates’ fathers.

When they come home, they ask. We talk about politics, violence, war, death, autocracy vs democracy, freedom, and survival. They ask if I would fight? For what? And why? Would they leave with their mother while I stay? Would we all leave? What would we do if we couldn’t leave?

There is no shortage of hard topics at home these days.

We have a Plan B. And a Plan C. Just in case. As implausible as it sounds. As impossible as it sounds.

I have moved around the world a lot as an adult, but always of my own volition. I have been a migrant seeking adventure and better economic opportunities than I saw back ‘home’ in Canada. I realize how incredibly fortunate that makes me.

But my roots run deep in refugee soil. My grandparents and great-grandparents escaped Pogroms and Nazis and the Arrow Cross to come to Canada with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They worked to the bone to provide better lives for their family. A few generations later I am staying in 5-star hotels in the countries they escaped.

Growing up, I never saw my family as “refugees” because those are people huddling in tents on TV, not us. It’s only in hindsight that I can look back with clarity and understand the risk assessment they made in escaping the gallows for the unknown.

Many of my friends in Junior High and High School in North York, Ontario were first-generation refugees whose families were fleeing war, famine, and political and economic instability in their countries of origin – Russia, Vietnam & Iran specifically. I could call them out here, but don’t want to inadvertently embarrass anyone.

Nobody likes to be considered a refugee, particularly after clawing your way up and out of that category. We should probably all be more honest about this when we talk about immigration, and the ROI of open borders. So many of us have roots like mine that only exist because their ancestors had the opportunity to seek refuge in a storm.

My children ask what we can do about refugees. We can shake our fist and yell at the storm. We can take cover, or feel empathy for those taking cover. Or we can donate and raise some money for buckets, so those affected can bail out the deluge.

That’s a really long introduction to some fundraising I am doing for a bike ride this Saturday. Some of my friends (including @Roger Hulbert, @Jay Kanabar & @Sidharth Joshi) with roots in Iran, India, Mali, Canada, England and Denmark are biking with me around the ?resund – a 120km route (approximately 75 miles) – to raise money for Ukrainian Refugees in Denmark.

We will ride North from Copenhagen to Helsing?r, have a quick visit to Kronborg Castle (Immortalized as Elsinore Castle in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet), then take a ferry across the ?resund Strait to Helsingborg in Sweden. From Helsingborg, we will ride South to Malm?, and then take the train over the ?resund Bridge back to Copenhagen. My plan is to then dive into the Baltic Sea to cool off, and I hope my friends join in! We’ll see.

This will be the approximate route: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/2949341

I will post periodic route updates on twitter at https://twitter.com/TatsuTweets

Please support the cause.

If you are in Denmark, you can donate here: https://indsamler.redbarnet.dk/indsamlinger/ride-for-refugees

If you are outside of Denmark, please consider donating directly to one of these two charities:

1 – Red Barnet (Save The Children) - Both in Ukraine and in the border countries, together with local partners, they distribute emergency aid in the form of food, water, warm blankets, nappies, hygiene kits and provide financial assistance so that the families themselves can take care of meeting their urgent needs. They are also creating child-friendly areas at the borders and in reception centers in the countries around Ukraine.

More info here:

• English: https://www.savethechildren.org/
• Danish: https://indsamler.redbarnet.dk/indsamlinger/ride-for-refugees

2 – The Ukraine Jewish Relief Fund - They are providing food, water, medicine, shelter, and (when possible) safe passage out of Ukraine, and helping resettle refugees here in Denmark.

More info here:

• https://www.chabadenmark.com/special/campaigns/ukraine/donate.htm

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FYI the usual stand-alone GoFundMe.com international charity fundraiser approach doesn’t work in Denmark because of the Danish Fundraising Act and the need to obtain permission from the Danish Fundraising Board to carry out a fundraiser. I don’t have the time to read and digest the regulations (https://www.indsamlingsnaevnet.dk), so taking the easy approach this year to stay compliant. :)