"This is how we support people we can’t reach for security reasons"

Dear Borderfree Family

"I was with her when she called eight different organisations. No one wanted to help her."

Rana tells me the story of Mayla (her real name is withheld out of respect for her privacy), a mother whose daughter needed life-saving surgery within two weeks. But the family did not have the money. And whatever the mother tried, she found only closed doors. The wheels of bureaucracy turn too slowly.

Rana is a teacher and a passionate mountaineer. But what she has built up in her free time over the past few years is more impressive than all the mountain peaks she has climbed: she has compiled a list of 300 families in need, all of whom she knows personally. Single mothers. Older people with no income. Families who have fled contested areas. People with chronic illnesses who can no longer afford their medication.

She visits them at home. She listens. She stays in touch — via WhatsApp, by phone, through chance encounters on the street. And she gives them money so they can buy what they need most urgently.

What the families do with the money is up to them. One mother uses it to pay school fees for her nine-year-old child. Another pays overdue rent before eviction proceedings begin. An older man buys firewood before winter creeps through the damp walls. A woman with lung disease pays the electricity bill, without which her ventilator will not run.

Rana’s help saved the girl’s life. No aid package in the world would have helped her at that moment.

We have decided to work with Rana because we trust her. And because she stands for what Borderfree is all about: fast and uncomplicated help for people in need.

What we do

As a first step, we want to work with Rana to support 100 families from her list. Each family will receive 150 US dollars. That is a total of 15,000 US dollars.

If the security situation allows, Rana delivers the money in person. If the route becomes too dangerous, she sends it via a Lebanese cash transfer service for a fee of one percent. This way, we can also reach people in places that no one can currently access safely.

We carefully assess who receives support. But we do not dictate what a family needs it for.

Why cash assistance?

If this form of aid is new to you and you are wondering why we have chosen it, we explain in this article which concerns we take seriously.

Today is about what Rana has long been doing — helping people in the most effective, dignified and flexible way there is.

With 150 francs, you can make cash assistance possible for an entire family.

With 300 francs for two. With 750 francs for five. Every contribution counts — even a smaller one.

If this first step succeeds, it will not be the last. There are 300 families on Rana’s list. Today, we are starting with 100.

The selection is monitored. The use of the money is self-determined. And thanks to cash assistance, we can even support people we currently could not reach for security reasons.

Will you join us?

Warmly,

Vanja