Soroptimist Ukraine connection fundraiser

Vanessa from Waiwhetu

Our Lower Hutt Soroptimist group had to postpone our normal film fundraiser due to Covid, but we've come up with an alternative. We would like to support East European Soroptimist groups who are sheltering Ukrainian refugee families, especially women and children, flooding across the borders into their countries. Groups in Moldova, Poland and Romania are providing food, water, blankets and shelter where possible, and have put out a call for help to buy more food and blankets so they can support more refugees. The Soroptimist International Europe Disaster Recovery Fund is currently channeling donations to these Soroptimist groups who have provided evidence that they are directly helping Ukrainian refugees coming into their countries.

Our Lower Hutt Soroptimist group would like to invite friends, family and supportive members of the public to participate in our 'Ukraine Connection' virtual film fundraiser, available until 31 March 2022. Participation can take two forms:

1. DONATIONS ONLY (closes 31 March 2022)

If you prefer to simply donate to show your support, at any time from now until 31 March 2022, you can make a donation to the Soroptimist International Europe Disaster Recovery Fund: www.soroptimisteurope.org...

A few things to note:

· You will need a credit card to donate. When you click Donate by Paypal, you will see a page where you can select to pay by credit card rather than Paypal.

· You need to enter a cellphone number at one point in the process.

· The donation is made in Euros. As at 26/3/2022, ONE New Zealand dollar is worth about $0.63 euros. So if you donate 12 euros, you will be donating about 20 NZ dollars.



2. DONATE AND WATCH FILM WITH CONNECTION TO UKRAINE

Make the donation (see 1 above) and then settle in to watch the very well-reviewed comedy drama “Woman at war”, available for $7 through the Deluxe At Home film screening website: athome.deluxecinemas.co.nz...

This 2019 film is about an Icelandic woman fighting to protect her local environment whose ‘ecowarrior’ agenda is disrupted when she is offered the opportunity to adopt a young Ukrainian girl (hence the Ukraine Connection). It is rated PG, and the 'Rotten Tomatoes' meta-review website gives it an audience rating of 86% and a film critics rating of 97%.

A few things to note:

· You will need a credit card to pay for the film

· You need to set up an account on the Deluxe At Home film screening website (athome.deluxecinemas.co.nz... setting up an account is free

· You get seven days in which to start your viewing period.

· You get a viewing period of 48 hours once you start (so, if you start watching and get interrupted, or prefer to watch in two sessions, that's fine, provided you complete within 48 hours).

· This film has subtitles.


SUMMARY FOR PARTICIPANTS

· Donate via this link: www.soroptimisteurope.org...

· Set up account, pay for and watch the film via this link: athome.deluxecinemas.co.nz...

(After the fundraiser has finished, we will put up a link for participants to a very brief survey of how it went. The survey is optional. We would very much appreciate it if participants can complete it so we can try to gauge the effectiveness of the fundraiser).

We hope you can join us in this fundraising project :-)