Former Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel is once again stepping up to aid people in need through her BStrong Foundation. Even if Bethenny wasn’t your cup of tea on RHONY, you can’t deny that she is a force for helping others. In 2017, Bethenny created the non-profit. Now BStrong works as a partner with Global Empowerment Mission.
Bethenny recently announced that she was sending $10 million in aid to help Ukrainian citizens who are trying to flee the invading Russian forces. BStrong is focusing on helping Ukrainian women and children at the Polish border.
In a recent Instagram Story, Bethenny shared, “So we’re really dealing with women and children at the border in Poland. We just had an incident with a woman whose husband was pulled out of the car. He was taken because he’s Ukrainian, and the men can’t leave,” Bethenny added.
She previously committed to sending 100,000 survival kits, hygiene kits, and sleeping bags for victims who crossed into Poland. Bethenny explained that financial donations would go to “individual cases and families through cash, cards and plane tickets.”
Bethenny also shared that a team from BStrong would be at a welcome booth near an entry center on the Polish border. “Money is flying in, and this is what it’s going to be used for. We’re working with the Polish government. We will have multiple computers and volunteers,” she stated. “People coming in will come up to us, we’ll find out if they have family, where their family is.” The Skinnygirl mogul continued, “Hotels will not be available, so we’ll give them the crisis kits, and then we will be booking them travel to get them where they need to get to.”
RELATED: Bethenny Frankel Sends $10 Million In Aid To Ukrainian Citizens Fleeing War
The New York Post reported that Bethenny has now raised $25 million to help the relief initiative in Ukraine through BStrong. On March 3, 2022, Bethenny posted an Instagram Story video to give an update. Bethenny said that $10 million will help Ukrainian refugees, with the remaining $15 million to be distributed inside Ukraine.
“We are partnering with different apparel companies, food companies, lodging companies to be announced later, to place these people in lodging,” Bethenny stated. “Thousands of people in lodging and you already knew that we already partnered with travel companies for trains and planes, so it’s planes, trains, lodging, food and clothing for refugees and aid going in.”
On March 6, 2022, Bethenny gave an update via Twitter. “We are now at several hundred relocations a day in addition to organizing multiple warehouses to be filled with aid so orgs can come “shop” for specific aid according to their needs…#bstrong @GEMmissions bethenny.com/bstrong to donate,” she wrote.
Bethenny launched BStrong in 2017, and provided relief for the people of Houston, Texas after Hurricane Harvey hit.
RELATED: Bethenny Frankel Is Ready To “Jump Through Her Phone” If Teresa Giudice Doesn’t Sign A Prenup
In 2018, Bethenny brought along RHONY co-star Dorinda Medley during a disaster relief trip to Puerto Rico. Dorinda had expressed interest in the work that Bethenny was doing to help after the hurricane, and the trip was filmed for the show.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Bethenny partnered with the the Global Empowerment Mission to create and give out corona kits. Each tote bag included SOS hydration, gloves, sanitation wipes, and recommendations from the medical community.
BStrong also donated over 10,000 of the N95 face masks to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Bethenny’s boyfriend at the time, and now fiancé, Paul Bernon, worked on the project with her from his home in Boston.
BStrong is currently accepting donations to help Ukraine through Bethenny’s website.
RELATED: Bethenny Frankel Weighs In On Kanye West And Kim Kardashian Divorce Drama
TELL US- WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE WORK THAT BETHENNY IS DOING TO HELP UKRAINE?
[Photo Credit: Bravo]
