Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — When Utah-based nonprofit August Mission deployed a humanitarian aid team to Poland to assist Ukrainian refugees over a year ago, the goal was to get on the ground and into refugee camps along the border of Ukraine and Poland, to assess what the greatest needs were and how August Mission could help.
August Mission was founded by Bruce Roberts in 2021 after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Roberts, a veteran, said that the idea for the mission came to him after he had a "feeling that we had failed to live up to some of our commitments there."
"Myself, being a veteran of Afghanistan, I had friends and contacts there that were reaching out to me and asking for help to get their families out," Roberts said.
After this realization, Roberts formed August Mission with the goal to provide lawful recovery, resettlement and humanitarian support to refugees, displaced persons and others who had been left behind.
Now, with more trips to Ukraine under its belt and a bigger team, the mission has a more focused idea about how it can best assist Ukraine and its residents.
Last month, August Mission led another trip to Ukraine, where it connected a delegation of over 30 Utahns — including business leaders from a wide array of industries and politicians such as Utah Senate President Stuart Adams — with the ambassador of Ukraine to the U.S., various Ukrainian ministries such as agriculture, technology, defense and even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"In 2022, we wanted to ask what the needs were, and I think we were very successful in filling those needs," said Nick Fowler, director of operations at August Mission. "However, the way we felt quite quickly is that it wasn't enough."
Ukraine is looking for solutions. They obviously want to thrive as a country, they obviously want to provide security and, kind of, long-term solutions for the people, and having the Utah businesses go out and really being able to provide some of those solutions, working together, is huge.
–Nick Fowler, August Mission
Fowler said that August Mission didn't want to take a Band-Aid approach to a crisis that was impacting the lives of millions of people, but wanted to instead focus on long-term solutions. He referenced a popular analogy: You can give a man a fish and he can eat for a day, or you can teach him to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime.
"If you're talking about serving long-term, big, big problems, I think it has to be at the industry, federal, regional level in Ukraine," Fowler said. "The idea was to introduce businesses (and) business partners with Ukrainian businesses and business partners both at the private and, kind of, country level, and to create and discuss how to solve these giant problems."
Fowler said that the World Trade Center Utah was instrumental in bringing the business delegates together for the mission.
"Ukraine is looking for solutions. They obviously want to thrive as a country, they obviously want to provide security and, kind of, long-term solutions for the people, and having the Utah businesses go out and really being able to provide some of those solutions, working together, is huge," Fowler said.
While last month's mission laid the groundwork for collaboration between Ukraine and the Beehive State, Fowler said that the real work still has to be done — something that will be accomplished through more specific trade missions in the future, adding that the last trade mission was the "first of many."
He said that the delegation returned to the state with a laundry list of needs and problems that Ukraine is facing. This time, however, they also came back with relationships in place that will help bring solutions to those problems to life.
Additionally, Fowler said that he sees Utah as being in a unique position to assist Ukraine, referencing Utah's bustling economy and high rates of volunteerism.
"A lot of what has made Utah successful is being shared with Ukraine," Fowler said, referencing Utah's tech and defense industries.
Fowler added that one of his biggest gripes throughout the Ukraine-Russia war is the notion that Ukraine is getting everything it needs.
"The one message I'd like to give everybody is that the humanitarian organizations out there on the ground, you know, are still in need of funds, supplies and support," Fowler said.
