Tag Archives: refugees

Ukrainian refugee joins with Rotarians to help people back home

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Rotarians have partnered with a solar energy company to provide solar generators that power critical medical equipment at front-line hospitals in Ukraine. Photo by Olena Vynohradova

By Heidi Rickels, past president of the Rotary E-club of WASH

As a Rotarian and development professional, I’ve witnessed many remarkable stories of resilience and compassion. One that deeply touched my heart is that of Yurii Zinchenko, a highly accomplished lawyer with more than 20 years of experience practicing and teaching law in Ukraine. As his apartment building burned, he fled his home in eastern Ukraine, along with his wife, Vitalina, and their young daughter, Anastasia, in February of 2022.

The journey for the Zinchenko family was marked by hardship and uncertainty as they navigated the perilous path westward, fleeing the violent Russian invasion alongside countless other Ukrainians desperate for safety. It was a journey filled with displacement, confusion, and fear, which ultimately led to a beacon of hope.

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Resilience and a hope-filled smile in Ukraine

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Counselors lead a class for the refugee children in Poland.

By Dr. Marina Theododou, president-elect of the Rotary Club of Crystal City-Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia, USA

On a crisp summer morning in late July, a team from my club met Jan in Warsaw, Poland. He is a blond, lanky, 14-year-old boy with a shy but warm smile. We leaned in to shake his hand and noticed a tuft of hair painted light blue, the color of the Ukrainian flag.

Jan and his mother, Luba, fled the war in Ukraine more than 500 days ago. Since then, they have been living with Rotary E-Club of Poland member Monika Popiolek and her family. Jan’s father and older brother are fighting on the Ukrainian front. Jan is just one of thousands of Ukrainian children displaced by the war in Ukraine. Several Rotary clubs and individual Rotary members have stepped up to help support these Ukrainian refugees living in Poland.  

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North Carolina Rotarians help Ukraine refugee

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Kateryna, middle, with Nancy and Patrick Curley.

By Dr. Patrick Curley, assistant governor District 7730, and past president and president-elect 2024-25, Rotary Club of The Friendship Knot

The Rotary Club of The Friendship Knot is an e-club in District 7730 and is unique in that its focus is the integration of Rotary International and World Scouting. All of the members of the club are registered Scouts. During one of our meetings, we learned about Scouts in Ukraine from Olha Dybkaliuk. It was a very emotional presentation and I felt that I needed to do something.

I learned about Welcome.US through an article in Rotary magazine. The nonpartisan national initiative was created in 2021 to inspire Americans to support those seeking refuge here and has been finding host families for those fleeing the war in Ukraine. I had been following the news about Ukraine for some time and felt there must be something I could do to help.

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Ukraine assistance program changes lives

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Oleg and Oksana, their daughter Nastya, and twin boys Bohdan and Roman.

By Doug Lee, Rotary Club of Dixon, Illinois, USA

“Pajama Day?”

Since I’d “met” her in mid-October, Oksana had sent me hundreds of e-mails through Facebook Messenger. I’m pretty sure this was the first one that made me laugh out loud.

We’d just enrolled Oksana’s daughter Nastya in first grade at Washington School in Dixon, Illinois, and Nastya’s teacher had excitedly shared the schedule for the week ahead. When Oksana read Friday was Pajama Day, she was beyond perplexed.

In Ukraine, you see, schools don’t celebrate Pajama Day.

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North Carolina Rotarians welcome Ukrainian refugee families

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The two women sit on a sofa with their children in their laps, and two dogs nearby
Natallia Melnik and Sviatlana Baranava and their children in Wilmington, North Carolina, USA.

By Dan Parks, Rotary Club of Wilmington East, North Carolina, USA

At the end of December, two Ukrainian families arrived in North Carolina, USA, after a whirlwind departure from Kyiv on Christmas day. They traveled through Warsaw and Chicago enroute to North Carolina. It’s been a busy three weeks as I’ve helped get the mothers signed up for Medicaid and their children enrolled in school or settled into daycare.

In late September, I was contacted by a representative from Welcome.US, a nonpartisan national initiative in the United States that was created to inspire, mobilize, and empower Americans from all corners of the country to support those seeking refuge here. The program started in September 2021 to assist those fleeing Afghanistan, but it has since expanded to embrace refugees from the war in Ukraine. Welcome.US is collaborating with Rotary to find hosts for refugee families.

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