Bethenny Frankel.Photo: Bethenny Frankel Instagram; Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images
Bethenny Frankelis using her nonprofit initiative,BStrong, to bring $10 million worth of aid to those affectedin the Ukraine invasion.
“Here, we can just be very quick,” Frankel, 51, tells PEOPLE about the rollout, which includes 100,000 crisis kits filled with blankets, sleeping bags, toiletry kits, non-perishables and water, plus generators. “We’re very immediate because we already have a warehouse that’s filled with $16 million in aid.”
BStrong, Frankel says, has blossomed from a “small relief effort to a massive one, but with a very lean infrastructure with a warehouse constantly filled with aid.”
“Today, one 40-foot container went,” she says. “Tomorrow, two 40-foot containers will go out … And then Monday, two additional 40-footers will go out, and it’s good to sort of stagger because it’s a lot more than you can visualize: $10 million in aid is an extraordinary amount.”
The Skinnygirl entrepreneur and former reality star says that each container is filled with $250,000 worth of aid — some pieces of which come via donations from partners including Goya, Delta and Away.
“It’s the things that people would need immediately, if displaced. Just the basic, basic needs,” the mom-of-one says.
Russia began a long-feared invasion of Ukraine earlier this week, with forces moving from the north, east and south. The attack is still evolving, but threats are mounting against the capital, Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million people. More than 100 Ukrainians have died, officials say.
The United Nations Refugee Agency estimates thatmore than 100,000 peoplehave so far also been displaced as a result of the fighting, with attempts to flee to neighboring countries like Poland to the west.
But as Frankel notes, leaving Ukraine as it is under attack is no easy task.
“It’s taking people seven hours to exit. Airways are closed, so it’s taking seven hours for people to get out, and you’re seeing the crazy traffic, and it’s escalating,” she says, adding, “European countries are going to have to take in refugees, and Poland is already experiencing people coming in now. So it’s the ideal place to set up.”
The Ukrainian people, Frankel says, will be able to start accessing the kits from her group on Monday.
Frankel says that the $10 million in aid is only an “initial commitment” — more will be on the way.
BStrong is accepting donations — both for items for the kits from large partners and funds, which could potentially go toward distributing cash cards in the future, Frankel says.
She adds that her team is prepared to continue sending supplies to Ukraine for months.
Bethenny Frankel Instagram
“When the headlines fade, we’re still finishing a mission. You can’t go there, you can’t commit to something without following through,” Frankel says. “And aid has to be fully distributed, and money allocated to a certain disaster relief effort has to be fully distributed. So it’s a long process. It’s not a one-and-done thing.”
She continues: “This is looking like it will be the greatest humanitarian crisis since World War II … We’re lucky that we can do something when so many people feel helpless,” she says.
source: people.com
