We are engaged in an ongoing dialogue with students, staff and the Executive Board to understand how we can work together to provide support for our community and also send help to refugees and those in need in Ukraine and the surrounding countries.

This page brings together the various activities and initiatives we have been working on, recommendations for other organisations that need support in terms of donations or volunteering, and an outline of suggestions from students that is helping to shape DAE’s response.

Student requests and how DAE is responding

Students at DAE feel passionately about supporting Ukraine and its citizens. DAE’s editorial team has worked with a number of students to collate their ideas and requests for action and understand how DAE can respond. For an academic institution, there are some suggestions are more challenging to respond to and others where action can be taken quickly.

In the interests of transparency, DAE is publishing the list of requests and how the school is responding. This list will be updated as regularly as possible.

→Expressing solidarity: We have expressed solidarity internally through a dedicated mailing to the community, and externally on Instagram, Facebook and on our website. We will continue to share messages of solidarity with input from our community.

→Supporting funds and making donations: We are currently working on a list of funding opportunities and have set up a community donation box with Giro555. The students made other suggestions, including the UN Refugee Agency, and a list of organisations to donate to can be found further down this page.

→Open discussion engaging eastern European voices
The Communications, Presentations and PR department has connected students, the lecture committee and DAE’s events producer in order to organise a lecture with an expert in eastern European studies.

→Connecting students to the student counsellor: the counsellor has launched regular sessions with students (see further information in the right-hand column on this page). We will commission and publish an interview with her in order to introduce the student counsellor once again. A number of students said they didn’t know about the offering of counselling at DAE.

→Avoid using Russian gas on DAE premises: Due to the management of the building that DAE occupies – which is not controlled by the school – this would be complicated to trace and is currently not a priority.

→Collection of material donations: Students have initiated a collection of materials and want to update the community about what’s needed. We will support this with an announcement in the internal DAE Letter. Students are currently organising transport to the Polish-Ukrainian border themselves and have asked for possible financial support from the board, which is being discussed.

→Special vacancies for Ukrainian students: Other institutions are facilitating for Ukrainians to receive visas. We are not sure if this is something we can do but we are investigating the possibilities.

→Linking up with other institutions for collective fundraising in order to make strong collective statements and for collective fundraising: The head of the Communications, Presentations and PR department is connected to communication experts at Dutch institutions and is looking for ways to facilitate this.

→Publishing strong statements by our educational leaders: We are discussing internally how this might work, but the position of the Academy has already been stated clearly.

→Students want to talk directly to the board: The administration is exploring the idea of organising general assemblies on a regular basis. The students expressed that they would appreciate such a format since they feel they need to have a more direct connection to the executive board.

→Addressing the Dutch Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Education: This request is being evaluated by the Executive Board.

→Including alumni: We will send out a newsletter to alumni and will include information about the war and how to help.

→Minute of reflection during the upcoming Research Festival: We have contacted the curators of the festival with the recommendation to hold space for the victims of the war in Ukraine.

Other ways to help outside of DAE

Monetary donations

There are many organisations that are currently providing aid to people in Ukraine to those who fled the war in the past days. Please consider donating.
 
→ UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, provides emergency shelter, healthcare and life-saving protection to families who are leaving everything behind.  

→ Ukrainian Red Cross helps those in need affected by armed conflict, mobilising volunteer and resources in this state of emergency.  

→ UNICEF, working to scale up life-saving support for children and their families.  

→ OutRight Action, supporting LGBTQI+ communities in Ukraine.

Solidarity link farm

Fellow cultural institutes in the Netherlands, are looking into ways to accommodate artists with children. More information can be read on Solidarity Link Farm, a shared pad by cultural workers in the Netherlands and other accomplices.

Material donations at Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam

Het Nieuwe Instituut supports the hArt for Ukraine and Sleep Safe campaigns and is acting as a collection point for aid supplies for Ukraine. These, as well as empty boxes for packaging and transport, can be handed in at the institute’s reception desk. Different initiatives are also collecting essential items and medical supplies to take to Ukraine. Medicines, (medical) aids and equipment can now be dropped off at collection points throughout the Netherlands.

See a live overview of the things that are needed and the drop-off locations via a Google Doc of the Ukrainian Foundation in the Netherlands. Het Nieuwe Instituut is one of these drop-off points. More information is available on their website.