I have been processing lots of grief lately as I try to understand what’s happening in Ukraine. I haven’t lived there for years, but it’s the place where I was born and that shaped me, and its pain is my pain. When one feels helpless, the best thing is to reach out to others and help someone else. So I decided to hold a fundraiser for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF.) It’s been a while since I’ve been thinking of this idea and looking for the best way to organize it. This year has been challenging for many people around the world, and I know that our community wanted to contribute. We’ve raised over $5000.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is a reputable organization known for its projects all over the globe. They help with children care, offer help to impoverished communities and those experiencing military conflicts. Their structure is quite lean, so it means that the money, even if it’s a small amount, goes a long way.

The fundraiser ran till June 30, 2022, and the winner is Vincent. However, I will leave a link for those who would like to donate anyway.

How to Donate
Click on this link: Donate Now

The prize for this fundraiser was vintage Coty Chypre.

EDIT on March 6 2022: This list is constantly evolving, and as my readers are sending me links and suggestions, I will keep on adding the information. If you see anything that needs to be update, please let me know. Please distribute this list as widely as you possibly can so that it can get into the hands of someone who needs it.

Aiding Ukraine and Ukrainians from Abroad

This comprehensive list was sent to me by a friend from my college days. It was compiled by Aleksandr Sklyar ([email protected]), Ph. D. Sociocultural Anthropology (Colgate University, Visiting Assistant Professor of University Studies), Dvorah Southland ([email protected]), and volunteers from the Colgate University community. A full list of resources and charities. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gL0cPoZeqQlbE0Nqubqs4kNmDYjn_kw7JRvomUmqWSQ/edit

Polish NGOs working for migrants and refugees 

Cooperates with many other organizations and shares money with them according to their needs.

https://konsorcjum.org.pl/

Another Polish organization that helps refugees

https://ocalenie.org.pl

Animal Charities

I’m compiling a list of resources based on reader suggestions.

https://linkin.bio/ifawglobal

@shelter_ugolyok

@happy_paw

@1bike1world

Resources for Minorities and People of Color  

The list below was compiled by Marianne @spritzi_mcgillacutty, with the assistance of Roshan @uniquescents.co and Susanna.

OPEN TO ALL FOREIGN NATIONALS IN UKRAINE

• Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon –  comprehensive list of resources for African, BIPOC, LGBTQIA and disabled Ukrainians
  • Twitter:  @ksvaranon  
  • Linktree:  https://linktr.ee/ksvarnon

• Black Polish – Organizing help for foreign students fleeing Ukraine (in Polish & English) 
  • @blackispolish

• CARA – NGO offering help to academics in danger, forced in exile and under serious risk in their home country. Currently working with universities in Ukraine.
  • Phone: +44 (0)207 021 0880
  • Fax: +44 (0)207 021 0881
  • Email: [email protected]

• Government Resources available in Romania
  • Andreea Enache: twitter: @andreea_mihaela

• Leaving Ukraine – Support group for Africans leaving Ukraine to a Safe Zone; On Twitter lots of useful info for Nigerian students
  • Twitter: @leavingukraine
  • Website: https://lnkj.in/p/nido/
  • Instagram: @blackpeopleinukraine

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Happy Women’s Day! Happy birthday to my mentor, my teacher, my adopted mother (her words, not mine)–Sophia Grojsman. She’s the reason I write about fragrance and not politics. She gave the ’80s and ’90s their scent–and even dared to perfume Paris. Generous, passionate, courageous. She’s a legend.

I first met Sophia in 2006 when I was still a political science student and Bois de Jasmin was a mere sapling. She met me at her Manhattan office at IFF. She had a fan of blotters in one hand and a cigarette in another. She told me that I’m too boring for wearing all black. I swooned. Mostly because of the smoke, but I was also captivated by her. Sophia took me under her wing and taught me everything she knew. She was the same way with everyone around her. I don’t know of another person with a bigger heart.

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Much of my scent vocabulary comes from Poltava, a town in central Ukraine where I spent the first 15 summers of my life. I was born in the capital city of Kyiv, but Berig, a hamlet near the town of Poltava, is our family nest. My mother’s line can trace its roots to this region as far back as the 17th century. Though in Ukraine’s tumultuous history four centuries are hardly ancient, this land exhorts an inexorable pull on me. Berig is our idea of heaven. I can describe without much effort how many trees are in the orchard and which of the peeling grey shutters has a rusty hook, but I also can recall the exact scent inside the water tank, the damp warmth of the tool shed, and the bitter odor of dandelion flowers.

As you read Bois de Jasmin, you breathe in these scents along with me, because the roots of my jasmine forest, bois de jasmin, are in Berig. When describing the fragrance of carnations and roses, I think of the flowers my great-grandmother grew. They are my olfactive referents. And so I would like to take you to very place that inspired Bois de Jasmin, to my great-grandparents’ house in Berig.

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The first time I encountered a perfume that beguiled me was on the pages of a book. The sultry red-haired witch in Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita enticed women with the promise of “Guerlain, Chanel No. 5, Mitsouko, Narcisse Noir, evening gowns, cocktail dresses...” It would be some years before I smelled these perfumes, but their names left a “baffling but seductive” imprint, just as suggested by the novel.

It is no accident that Bulgakov selected Chanel No 5, Guerlain Mitsouko and Caron Narcisse Noir. Those were the fragrances worn by his wife, Elena Bulgakova, the muse for Margarita in the novel. Elena Bulgakova’s granddaughter from her first marriage used to be part of my family. She often mentioned how much her grandmother loved fragrance, especially the three perfumes mentioned in the novel. Chanel No 5 evoked elegance for her. Mitsouko conveyed sophistication. And Caron was pure magic in its opulent glamour.

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