From an impromptu meeting at CGI, to delivering humanitarian aid – and hope – to Ukraine

The founders of Solight Design and Common Man for Ukraine discuss how a partnership started at CGI 2024 led to a convoy to deliver solar lanterns, aid, and joy to Ukrainian communities who need it most.

It could have been a scene from a back-to-school orientation – kids of all ages, holding backpacks, hugging their friends, and thanking volunteers. Last month in Zaporizhzhia Oblast in southeast Ukraine, these backpacks held more than school supplies – also lifesaving aid, solar lanterns, and food for families in the war-ravaged region. 

Alice Min Soo Chun, co-founder of Solight Design, joined co-founder Susan Mathison of Common Man for Ukraine for their 13th relief convoy, visiting ten vulnerable villages and safe houses. During the 11-day trip, they distributed over 46,000 pounds of food, hundreds of school kits, thousands of packages with sweets and toys, and more than 250 solar lanterns. Since 2022, Common Man for Ukraine has donated more than four million pounds of food.

The travel path wasn’t easy, but Chun and the team agreed that delivering aid in person was worth it. “When you see a child arrive terrified and leave laughing, you understand why being here in person matters,” Chun said.

The lanterns reached children and families just weeks after Russia’s latest attack on Ukraine’s energy grid.

Since the beginning of the war, electricity has been under attack. 70 percent of Ukraine’s thermal power generation capacity has been destroyed, damaged, or occupied, according to the International Energy Agency. Last year, these attacks led to an unprecedented energy crisis, followed by rolling blackouts. 

This unpredictability makes Solight’s lanterns invaluable. These lanterns – portable solar lights that are self-inflating, bright, long-lasting, and waterproof – have been deployed after hurricanes in Puerto Rico, Mexico, New Orleans, and Florida; after the fires in Maui; and after the earthquakes in Turkey, Syria, and Haiti. Families can enjoy light without relying on electricity, and the current model can also charge phones, keeping loved ones connected.

The goods distributed by Common Man for Ukraine and Solight combine practicality with joy, bringing light and hope to families in the most difficult circumstances. Susan Mathison, a co-founder of Common Man for Ukraine, said her most powerful moment of the trip was hearing “testimonies about the efficacy and persistence of the retreats’ positive effects.” Mathison called the experience “humbling, gratifying, and inspiring.” Since their launch, Common Man for Ukraine’s retreats have helped over 1,200 Ukrainian children start their healing journey.

The partnership began with a conversation at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) 2024 Annual Meeting.

At a session of the Ukraine Action Network, bringing together nonprofits and NGOs focused on work in Ukraine, Mathison came determined to identify ways to amplify Common Man for Ukraine’s impact. She co-founded the NGO in 2022 along with Alex Ray, Lisa Mure, and Steve Rand, to channel relief efforts to the ground in Ukraine and meet the urgent humanitarian needs.

Mathison was struck by Chun’s presentation on Solight’s lanterns. Mathison reflected, “I knew we would make great partners because both Solight and Common Man for Ukraine bring Ukraine’s children of war a light in the darkness – literally and metaphorically. The sun will keep the children’s solar lanterns bright, but their strength, courage, and tenacity will keep their hearts shining bright and able to face anything life presents.”

After the presentation, they sat down for a longer conversation – the start of a partnership that built to last month’s trip. In addition to attending the convoy, Chun visited Common Man for Ukraine’s mental health retreat, designed to get children out of Ukraine for a few weeks to play, relax, and connect with nature without air raid sirens or the threat of bombing. Mathison says the retreats are “a way to say ‘there will be joy again in your life’”. 

“At the retreat, we reminded the kids that the Russians could never take their sun away and that the light they carry inside is brighter and stronger than anything war can destroy,” Chun added.

This is not Chun’s first aid effort in Ukraine. In 2023, Solight made a CGI commitment to deliver 10,000 portable solar chargers and lights across Ukraine – a task completed this year. 

Chun reflected, “When I showed President Clinton my prototype, it was glued and duct taped together, and now we’ve been able to help impact over a million lives worldwide. Globally, the work CGI is doing is just immense. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be part of CGI again alongside Common Man for Ukraine.”

“We design the Clinton Global Initiative programs to spark connections that lead to impact,” CGI CEO Gregory Milne said. “Common Man for Ukraine and Solight Design’s partnership embodies what CGI is all about — bringing like-minded organizations together to make their work even more effective and help more people.”

This year, the CGI Annual Meeting has been designed to build even more of these partnerships. In a letter last month to the CGI community marking CGI’s 20th anniversary, President Clinton called the community together for “a different kind of meeting” centered around working group sessions where project plans are drafted, commitments are accelerated, and coalitions begin to take root.

Though the trip is over, the partnership is not. Common Man for Ukraine will continue distributing lanterns in front-line villages, at three-week trauma counseling retreats for children, and at newly piloted retreats for widowed mothers. 

“We hope the world better understands the catastrophic effects of war on a generation of Ukrainian children growing up in a war, and that partnerships of caring can make a difference in their lives,” Mathison said.

Read more about Common Man for Ukraine’s efforts, and support their work, here.