Recent days have been full of news and emotions, with many sad events and a few happy ones. On the last days of February 2022 I got shocked by the beginning of a new deadly war in Ukraine, but also got an unexpected FLOSS-related email from the Google Open Source Peer program.
I feel much honored to be one of the recipients of the Google Open Source Peer Bonus in 2022. I have been contributing to various FLOSS projects for many years now, and my professional work has recently been centered around it too.
Getting this small "thank you" mail in my inbox warmed up my heart.
Without a doubt, one of the main aspects of FLOSS communities is the variety of folks and cultures coming from all corners of the world.
Thus, it makes me especially sad seeing the sorrow situation and the news coming from the war in Ukraine. All those fellow engineers, developers, contributors, and cheerful people got plunged into an abyss of devastation.
The award came with a small monetary bonus, as an appreciation gift. I decided to double that amount and donate it to the official fund-raising for humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
This is a small drop in the bucket which can not fix all those atrocities, but hopefully it can help the people most affected by this war.