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Three Black women have rallied together to create a support fund that is providing a tremendous amount of financial aid to help Black students attempting to flee Ukraine amid the country’s tumultuous war with Russia.
Patricia Daley, Tokunbo Koiki and Korrine Sky are the founders of the Black Women For Black Lives (BW4BL), an organization that has now raised more than $86,700 to help nearly 950 Black people from across the diaspora leave the war-torn country. The changemakers have set up a GoFundMe and Paypal account to collect donations that are used to secure accommodation, taxis and emergency needs for endangered students. Travel Noire noted that the BW4BL has now been able to secure a partnership with Airbnb, that will provide Black students affected by the crisis with accommodation for up to “14 days” upon settling in safe countries. Now, the trio is working to expand their volunteer team to help provide more assistance to those in need. In a statement on their GoFundMe campaign website, Daley, Koiki and Sky, said that while organizing their relief effort for Black students has been stressful, they are absolutely overwhelmed to see the “community come together to support and protect each other when the rest of the world refuses to do so.”
Daley, Koiki and Sky’s unexpected alliance “started with a tweet.” Daley, who is a 29-year-old barista based in London, and Koiki, a 40-year-old social worker, came across a startling series of Tweets from Sky as she was attempting to escape Ukraine. The 26-year-old student was studying in the eastern city of Dnipro when the war erupted, Sky News reported.
Sky was desperately attempting to seek refuge in Romania, but the young student was met with racism and hostility when she arrived at the border. Prior videos posted to her Twitter account allegedly showed Ukrainian locals circling her car, and shouting in protest at her vehicle as she attempted to pass the border. Another clip captured long lines as thousands of refugees and locals waited eagerly to cross over to safe neighboring countries.
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Koiki and Daley sprung into action and contacted Sky via social media and the rest was history. Upon forming BW4BL, the ladies shared harrowing stories of discrimination and racism that they heard from other Black students on the ground in Ukraine.
“People said they were pushed, sent back, and physically assaulted on both sides of the border in Ukraine, Romania and Poland,” Koiki told Sky News.
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Daley recalled similar complaints from terrified students who claimed that they were taunted and harassed as they tried to escape to safety. Some even recounted seeing segregated lines for Ukrainians and non-white people. Others were removed from trains transporting ex-pats and refugees to safe areas outside of Kyiv and Lviv.
“I do think they have been treated differently at borders because of their skin,” Daley added. “Racism is now happening even in situations where there is war.”
As MADAMENOIRE previously reported, Morocco, Nigeria and Egypt make up the massive student body in Ukraine, with nearly 16,000 African people studying in the country.
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