The call has gone out for members of the global print community to join a new initiative called Print Against War and help deliver support to Ukraine.
A non-profit initiative of the Meaningful Print Foundation, Print Against War will help Ukrainian printing and packaging companies continue to operate, or provide support when they can again start up their productions.
Lorenzo Villa, co-founder of the Meaningful Print Foundation, says, “Beyond the humanitarian efforts that individuals, families, and businesses are making to support the Ukrainian population and refugees, we believe that an industry-wide response is essential.
“Print Against War is the first global outreach and support project to a regional printing and packaging market in need. We count it as the first that the Meaningful Print Foundation will be able to coordinate in the future.”
Lend your support and join the Print Against War global community
Call for support
Print Against War calls on printers and converters, publishers, influencers, and suppliers to the printing and packaging industry to join forces to support their colleagues during this incredibly difficult time. Beyond the war in Ukraine, the organisation’s goals extend to an ongoing ability to help restore the socioeconomic fabric of printing in any region affected by war.
Within the initiative and on its website, Print Against War intends to make visible reports from the field, give voice to Ukrainian printers through written and video interviews, and collect messages of solidarity from personalities, print champions, and print enthusiasts.
Among them, Marcus Timson, co-founder of Future Print, says, “We encourage anyone in the printing sector, anywhere in the world, to help our brothers and sisters in Ukraine rebuild their businesses and get behind this fantastic initiative.”
Alon Bar-Shany, chairman of Highcon and former general manager of HP Indigo, adds, “First of all, my heart is with my fellow printers and all the brave people of Ukraine. I wish you that these terrible days pass quickly. We are thinking of you, and we are also trying to figure out how we can help today from afar. And the next day. Because in the end, the war ends. And life comes back, and as the print industry I think we want to help our colleagues.”
US-based print industry media organisation WhatTheyThink has also lent a voice with this statement: “We stand in solidarity with those who are trying to fight this kind of war and oppression, and we stand for democratic values. Free speech, communication, and print have always been a huge part of that.”
PR agency duomedia has agreed to help Print Against War increase its visibility and gain additional support.
Help is welcome
The Print Against War programme is open to offers of help from vendors, printers, and any other printing community members.
To encourage the collection of donations from a broad base of users, Print Against War proposes that online printing and packaging businesses add a voluntary checkout donation option to their e-shops. This will allow a broad base of designers, agencies, print-service providers and individuals around the world to contribute. Further, you can make direct donations or offer other forms of material help. For example, you can provide consumables, paper, and so on for free or at special prices. Finally, Print Against War is working to create alliances between printers in the European Union and those in Ukraine. As a result, the former can share jobs with the latter, making their survival possible.
Allocating resources
The Meaningful Print Foundation is setting up an application system to make resource allocation transparent. Through its supervisory board, it will evaluate applications on case by case basis. All funded projects will be made visible.
The platform has already engaged in conversations with several Ukrainian operations.
Read about their stories.
Together, Print Against War and the Meaningful Print Foundation have a goal to mobilise the global printing and packaging industry to help stakeholders cope with wars, natural disasters, epidemics/pandemics, and other damaging and disruptive occurrences. In a statement, Print Against War says: “The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered a catastrophic humanitarian crisis with lives lost and thrown into turmoil, properties and infra-structures destroyed, and millions of livelihoods threatened every day. It is our duty as humans to provide support and assistance as best we can to the citizens of Ukraine in their deepest time of need.”
In addition, the Meaningful Print Foundation will work on long term projects empowering the printing industry to make a positive impact on the planet by addressing gender equality, carbon neutralisation, sustainable manufacturing, education for students in need, and inclusion of people with disabilities in the workforce.
For more information, contact
Lorenzo Villa
Print Against War
lorenzo@printagainstwar.org
+39 340 49 98 490
Elina Jonasdottir
duomedia
elina.j@duomedia.com
+32 (0)487 98 21 61
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