We are used to the fact that supermarkets collect money for sick children on weekends, we see appeals for help on radio and television. But we forget that diseases do not disappear after the child turns 18 years old. Therefore, Albert Pavlov, the founder of the "Happy Child" foundation, created a project to help adults "Helpus".
What inspired you to create the Helpus project?
We faced the fact that not only children but also adults approached us. But because we are a children's fund, we could not help them. People themselves save their lives by creating pages in social networks, because in Ukraine there are almost no such funds that help adults.
What is the idea of the project?
The idea is that we are creating a site, an online platform that will be known by a large number of people who want to help. This will be the place where applications for assistance will be submitted and then reviewed.
That is, this is a place where someone who needs help can find someone who can help?
Exactly. For example, there is a person with a serious illness, he begins to look for someone who will help. He creates his website, his page in a social network, or relatives create. That is, she starts the whole process from scratch. And Helpus should become a place where a person no longer needs to do everything from the very beginning.
What tasks did you set for yourself when you created the site?
Helpus, when it reaches a certain level of development, will have permanent sponsors who will donate funds. There are several portals where people go to the site every month and make donations. They don't search all over the Internet for someone who needs help, they go to one site where applications are posted and donate money then. Such a system is much more convenient and efficient than creating groups to help only one person, so everyone who needs help is in one place. We want to become just such a site.
And regarding applications for assistance...
Another task of our project is the verification of applications. There are a lot of them. And often people themselves find clinics where they can be helped. For example, you can be treated in Moscow for 5 thousand dollars, but they want to collect money for a hospital in Germany for 20 thousand euros. Often the money does not have time to collect and the person dies. They simply do not have information where the treatment can be just as effective, but for less money. That is, Helpus will monitor such requests and place objective applications on its website.
What difficulties does the project face?
First, it is the transition to the status of a fund. It still needs to be officially formalized, and bureaucratic red tape has always been a difficult task. Secondly, there is still no staff for this project. We need an employee who will deal only with this project. After all, we still have a lot of work to do with the children's fund and we simply cannot physically cope with such a volume of work. Now we really need a donor who will be able to allocate funds for salaries. We have volunteers in different cities who are ready to process applications, but we still need to connect them somehow, we need someone who will coordinate their work. There are volunteers who are ready to write, but are not ready to leave and personally familiarize themselves with the problem. So there is a lack of human resources. We have a lot of applications. The project is still under development, so not everyone will be able to get help quickly.
What can you say about site traffic?
This is another difficulty on our way. So far, the site is not visited by as many people as we would like, only 50-70 people per day. But we are trying to increase the number of guests.
Які ідеї є, щоб якось розкрутити сайт, підвищити відвідуваність?
We have a variety of promotion methods. There are very simple ways, but they all cost money. This is search optimization, promotion of the site on the Internet, banners on the site. Also, if there is a person who wants to help us in this, we will be very happy. In the meantime, we use the resources of social networks, constantly update our site and step by step promote our project, more and more people will learn about us. It would be good if everyone who learned about our project talked about Helpus on their page. This would also increase the number of visits to our resource.
Ordinary people can also help us in promoting the site. We can make a sticker for a car and these stickers will be seen by 50 or 100 people. And this is already a big help to us.
Are you trying to talk about yourself at public events in the city and beyond?
We have many opportunities where we can tell about ourselves, but again, we have a lot of work, so we have to choose something most important, set priorities correctly. Our working day is eight hours, and we have all twenty tasks. But we still try to talk about ourselves.
There was an all-Ukrainian expedition on quadricycles. Our employee Anton took part in it to promote the Helpus project. There were several press conferences where he talked about the stories of the applicants, about our project itself, but again, the mass media do not understand that it is important to promote the sites. It is very good that thanks to the mass media they found money for the man for the operation, but they bypass the message about the site. This is not entirely right. After all, every month there is a new person who needs help and needs to start from the very beginning, and Helpus gives you the opportunity to start your fundraising campaign from a higher level. Therefore, the press and television must take this into account.
СWe hope that the Helpus project will develop at a faster pace and will be able to help a large number of people in need. After all, there is no difference who needs help, the main thing is that a person should be healthy and live a long and happy life. If you can help, don't delay. Go to the site helpus.org.ua and give a ray of hope to a person who needs it very much. Who knows, maybe your $ will be decisive and thanks to you there will be more happy smiles in this world.
