How a Belarusian crowdfunding initiative provides relief for the repressed

The civic campaign “BY_Help” started as an online initiative to help repressed Belarusians back in 2017. Little did the founder expect that both the success and need for the programme would only grow in the coming years. Despite all the challenges, BY_Help is still working, providing the much needed aid that so many Belarusians require in the face of extreme repressions.

The story of an initiative that has raised over five million US dollars to help victims of repression in Belarus began in a British pub in 2017. At the time, after a comparatively long break in cracking down on dissent, the hard-line authorities had started rounding up people to head off possible protests on Freedom Day, an unofficial holiday in Belarus celebrated on March 25th to commemorate the declaration of independence by the Belarusian Democratic Republic in 1918.