The BEARR Trust is a UK-based charity, founded in 1991 to help improve the health and social welfare of vulnerable people in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus. We support voluntary groups and civil society organisations (CSOs) in the region that work with children, women and girls, people with physical and mental disabilities, and people who are marginalised because of their age, health, gender, sexual orientation, economic position or even geographical location. We support and encourage local CSOs to try out new approaches through our annual Small Grants Scheme, and we aim to share good practices in health and social welfare through our information network by sharing knowledge, skills and contacts. BEARR is the only UK-based charity working in this region that combines grant-giving and networking services, and by targeting our support to local CSOs we aim, indirectly, to encourage the development of civil society in countries of the former Soviet Union. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, we extended our activities to providing emergency support to CSOs helping refugees or people in danger in Ukraine and Moldova.