Austin business owner helping coordinate efforts to get supplies to Ukrainian orphans

AUSTIN, Texas - As Ukraine transforms into a war zone, 6,000 miles away, efforts are underway in Austin to help the most vulnerable who are sheltering-in-place.

"My phone’s blowing up constantly with different needs and trying to match them to people that have the ability to help," said Adam Lyons, founder of The Smart Blueprint.

Many of the calls are with his friend and fellow entrepreneur, Mark Davis. Davis’ charity, Abundance International, runs two orphanages in Ukraine. Lyons reached out as soon as he heard what was happening.

"He started outlining the problem he had, and I realized we could use all of our knowledge for marketing and business growth and systems to help with the supply issues and funding issues they have," said Lyons.

The two orphanages are in Kherson and Nikolaev, outside of the main conflict zone- at least for now. The issue is getting supplies to them.

"There are supplies available, but they are limited," said Lyons. "The real issue is transporting those supplies, because road routes are blocked and there are curfews and that’s where things get difficult."

Transporting supplies by air is not possible. Currently, their only option is transporting by land through Poland.

"A large part of what I’ve been doing, especially in the last 24 hours, is finding Polish logistical companies that have spare trucks available and then negotiating pricing and supplies," Lyons said on Sunday.

In a Sunday video update posted to YouTube, Davis said they should have enough food and medicine at their orphanages for the next few weeks but noted there is a lot more to be done.

"We were able to figure out a good system to take care of the needs of the orphanage here and deliver them supplies," said Davis. "What we want to do now is we want to expand this effort, because we realize it isn’t just this one orphanage that has these challenges, it’s going to be the whole country."

Lyons said since being in contact with Davis, he has had multiple other organizations reaching out for help. One of the other operations he’s currently involved in is helping around 30 children get out of a school that’s located in Kyiv. 

"While the government and military are doing what they need to do, we can aid civilians and try and help support them and get them to where they need to go, whether they’re refugees leaving the country or whether they’re hunkering down and they need supplies," said Lyons.

To contribute financially towards efforts to help the two orphanages, click here. 

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