Our Story
Fools Save the World formed out of a single idea: It takes a complete fool to think that they alone can change the world. However, if you get enough of those fools together in one place, amazing things are possible.
That’s what happened in early-March, 2022 at a defunct Tesco in the city of Przemysl in Poland. In this place, thousands of Ukrainian refugees were being processed and sent forth into Europe. Strangers from all over the world set out for the Tesco to volunteer and do what they could to provide aid to those in need. The core founding members of Fools Save the World met one another by chance, working in this place together.
It started with a five person group chat on WhatsApp that was intended to coordinate housing accommodations. That group chat grew into a nexus by which information passed. The number of names communicating grew and grew until it seemed like there was nothing going on in Przemysl that wasn’t somehow coordinated through that group chat. Anything you needed, you contacted “The Fools” and they either had the manpower to get it done, or knew who to call to get it done.
As time went on, some Fools had to rotate back home, but new people came in and joined the crew. After a few weeks, a problem began to emerge. Volunteers who had left everything behind in their lives were running out of money. The majority of the humanitarian aid in Poland at that time was being conducted by grass roots movements and loosely affiliated groups just like ours. There were no big NGOs to contact and there was no funding flowing to the volunteers. Members of Fools Save the World were purchasing supplies for the refugee center out of their own pockets, with no way to replenish the money they were spending. With accommodations for volunteers being very difficult to find, many resorted to living in tents around the facility, or living in their vehicles in spite of the frigid, sub-freezing evening temperatures.
With Russia unlikely to end the war quickly, this situation was unlikely to get better. Eventually the only option for these volunteers would be to go back home and back to their lives. It was at that point that a group of us decided we wanted to change that. We wanted to be able to give financial support to those who decided to dedicate their current lives to providing full time humanitarian aid. The only way to do that is with proper funding. We started small, acquiring small donations and channeling that money into supplies and replenishing the cash reserves of some of our members so that they could stay in Poland and keep working. As the conflict continues though, so too do the financial needs of our comrades. Therefore we have started a non-profit with the goal of providing financial support to them and others who dedicate their lives to this mission.
Fools Save the World Inc. is registered as a Non-Profit Corporation in the state of New Jersey