I have been working in Ukraine since the war started, looking for local organizations that do a great deal with very little. Kids of Ukraine is the one I keep coming back to.

They work with the teenagers hit hardest by this war: kids whose parents were killed or are being held in captivity, and kids who got out of the occupied territories with nothing.

I spent time with a group of them in Lviv this year. Every one of them had lost a parent, and every one of them was happy and curious, the way teenagers everywhere are. We talked about the program, and about other things too, like why my dog is named Waffles. They all talked about their hope to raise families here someday.

Three who came through the program are running things now. Nastia, who is from Mariupol, started an English speaking club for the younger kids. Mark talked his family into donating a 3D printer and now teaches other kids how to use it. Dmytro is about to start teaching financial literacy. When they turn eighteen, the program hires them.

These are not kids waiting to be rescued. They are the people who will rebuild this country, and they have already started.

The whole thing runs on $150,000 a year, about $250 per teenager. That tells you most of what you need to know about how carefully it is run.

You have been asked to give to Ukraine before, and you may be wondering whether it still changes anything. Here is what changed. Institutional funding has pulled back hard, and the UN's appeal for Ukraine is about a third funded. Four years ago your donation was one of millions. Right now it is one of very few.

Sofia Vyshnevska is running this page with me. She is from Lviv, she is building an AI company in Austin. Daria Wysznewska is with us from Kyiv.

The gap right now is $40,000. You choose the amount. Kids of Ukraine is a registered 501(c)(3), so your gift is tax-deductible.

This is a beginning, not a camp

aign. If you want to stay with it, or if you would rather give an hour than a check and talk to a room of teenagers deciding what to do with their lives, say so when you give and we will set it up.

And if you are not giving today, send this to one person who might.

Jim