When Ukrainian veterans come home having lost their sight, the support system waiting for them is often nowhere near enough.
For over 25 years, the Alliance for Public Health (APH) has been one of the most impactful public health organizations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Based in Kyiv, Ukraine, APH has helped avert over 50,000 new HIV infections, reaches more than 250,000 vulnerable people annually with prevention programs, and has shared its expertise across 60 countries.
Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, APH has also pivoted to provide humanitarian assistance to those most impacted by the war and helped develop inclusive services for veterans and civilians living with war-related injuries, reaching 1.6 million Ukrainians with support. It holds the only international accreditation of its kind in the EECA region and operates as a principal recipient of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Ukraine.
Today, APH's work has never been more urgent or more difficult. The ongoing war in Ukraine has upended public health infrastructure, displaced communities, and created a generation of veterans facing life-changing injuries, all while global public health funding faces unprecedented cuts. Delivering support in active conflict zones, coordinating resources across fractured systems, and getting funds to people in environments with limited financial infrastructure are daily realities for APH's team.
Part of Crypto Altruists’ partnership with Social Equation Hub (SEH) involves bridging web3 technologies with traditional nonprofit operations. Over the past months, we've been working directly with APH to explore how blockchain-enabled tools can help with some of their most pressing challenges: diversifying funding sources, making resource allocation more transparent, and getting support to people in hard-to-reach places where traditional financial infrastructure has broken down or never existed.
The first concrete result: APH can now accept cryptocurrency donations through Endaoment, a trusted platform supporting Bitcoin, Ethereum, and hundreds of other assets. Their first campaign is live now, supporting Ukraine's blind veterans through the Touch Point project.
Blind veterans in Ukraine aren't just dealing with the loss of sight. They're dealing with the loss of independence, routine, and in many cases, any clear sense of what comes next.
The Touch Point project addresses exactly that, offering rehabilitation, orientation, and mobility training, digital skills, psychological support, and real pathways back to community life.
As APH's Director of International Programs and Development Tetiana Deshko puts it: "Funding programmes for blind veterans is a high-impact investment. Proven pilot models show how targeted rehabilitation, family involvement, and follow-up support can be transformed into sustainable services with long-term social and economic returns."
And that's the name of the game: sustainability. International aid funding is in disarray following recent cuts from major donors, including the suspension of USAID programs that many Ukrainian nonprofits depended on. Shifting government spending priorities across the West have compounded the crisis, making it harder than ever for organizations like APH to fund day-to-day operations, let alone plan for long-term impact. In this environment, diversifying funding sources is not only a strategic objective, but also a means for survival.
In the quest to achieve long-term sustainability, Web3 opens the door to fundraising mechanisms that simply didn't exist before. One example: by donating just 25 USDC through Endaoment, APH was automatically eligible for $100 in matching funds through Endaoment's Universal Impact Pool.
The Universal Impact Pool uses an innovative allocation mechanism called Quadratic Funding, which distributes matching funds based on the number of unique donors rather than the size of donations. This means that even small contributions can unlock outsized impact, and every donor helps amplify the campaign's reach.
The goal here goes beyond emergency aid. As APH's Senior Program Manager Ievgen Kushnir explains: "Projects supporting blind veterans are essential because they move beyond emergency assistance toward long-term reintegration."
For veterans who have lost their sight serving their country, the path forward isn't just about medical care, but dignity, independence, and a future beyond the war. A future of thriving, not just surviving. Programs like Touch Point provide the skills, support, and community that make that future possible. And they represent a model that is evidence-based, locally led, and built for sustainability, making it highly scalable.
This is part of a bigger vision. As APH's Marina Varban frames it: "Well-designed, inclusive programmes enable them to regain agency, participate in society, and transform from recipients of care into active contributors to resilient communities."
That's the transformation we're working toward, not just for blind veterans, but for the broader ecosystem of public health in Ukraine and across Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
And we need your help. You can support this campaign right now by:
1. Donating crypto or other assets through Endaoment
2. Donating fiat through GlobalGiving
Crypto donations through Endaoment are tax-deductible for US donors, and every contribution, whether $10 or $10,000, goes directly toward helping veterans rebuild their lives.
This is just the beginning. In the months ahead, we'll be working with APH to explore new funding mechanisms and longer-term pathways toward crypto-enabled cash transfers for people in crisis. We'll be documenting the journey every step of the way.
If you believe that public health shouldn't depend on a single funding pipeline, and that the people doing the hardest work deserve the most innovative support, this is your chance to be part of building something new!
Support thoughtful, independent crypto journalism and help us continue highlighting blockchain’s potential for social and environmental impact.
cryptoaltruists.eth
