Legacy of War Foundation

We set up Legacy of War Foundation because we wanted to do things differently. Our localised, sustainable, beneficiary-led projects return power, funding and assets to the hands of the communities we work with. We seek to challenge the traditional neo-colonial concepts in the aid sector, and implement a collaborative model guided by our beneficiaries (we prefer 'partners'). Since 2017, we've raised over £1.8 m to support communities impacted by conflict.

OUR APPROACH & PROJECTS
We know the people best equipped to create change, and our greatest asset as an organisation, are our beneficiaries themselves - or, as we call them, partners. So we build projects from the group up with direct input from our partners, and aim for all our programs to be self-sustaining within five years. It was Land for Women partner, and Rwandan genocide survivor, Olive who inspired our flagship program's ethos. When asked what we could do to help her community, she replied, "give us the land to grow". So that's what we've done. Land for Women combines sustainable cooperative farming with a ground breaking land transfer model, and reflects our priorities of sustainability, affordability and education. Each cooperative lifts up to 100 people out of poverty.

In 2022 we launched an extensive Ukraine Crisis Response, working closely with partners on the ground to provide targeted support for supporting marginalised groups (including internally displaced families, and adults and children with disabilities) with specialist evacuation support, shelters and humanitarian aid. When the war began, we were quickly alerted to an urgent problem: evacuation transport was rarely accessible, and people with disabilities in Ukraine were literally being left behind. Our first fully-equipped ambulance (below) has been in the Dnipro region and liberated territories since June and it has now been joined by a second one, operating hundreds of supported evacuation missions for adults and children with disabilities and complex needs. We have also provided a specialised vehicle to support in teaching the many victims of spinal cord injury to drive.

Lastly, we educate and campaign around the impact of conflict. Our No More War project, launched in 2021, highlights the costs of twenty years of war following 9/11 with artistic collaborations to drive conversation and create change. We also support artists whose lives have been impacted by war, commissioning and amplifying their work. As an organisation we stand for equal rights, equal opportunities and aim to set an example within the sector. We avoid the need for expensive offices or inflated wages, and ensure that at least 95% of the funds we raise go to our projects.