On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a completely unprovoked attack on its neighbor, Ukraine, which was already the poorest country in Europe. Before the war, that neighbor had been home to 43.5 million people, but when Russia attacked, over 6 million of them fled to Europe or elsewhere. The U.S. took in 217,000 under the United For Ukraine program, and I am proud to report that Washington was one of the top four states in the Union to take in Ukrainian “parolees,” as they are called, along with California, New York, and Illinois. The Ukrainian-American community in Washington had been comprised of 60,000 people, and it grew by 50% through the program, adding 30,000 more Ukrainians to our state’s population. This 50% is allowed to work but must reapply to remain longer than two years. A few more Ukrainians are still trickling into the U.S., but 95% of people who wanted to flee Ukraine have already done so.
Back in Ukraine, five percent of the population had been poor before the war, but now 25% live below the poverty line. A full 14.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, while fewer than half have received it.
Our Rotary Club has responded beautifully to Ukraine’s plight. In March of 2022, our Board sent $13,000 to Rotary International for humanitarian aid. Next, member Michael Camp arranged for $3,300 for Israeli bandages to be sent. Soon thereafter, Rotarians Vicki Evans and Nena Peltin formed the Ukraine Subcommittee of the World Community Service Committee and since then, our club has sent the following to Kyiv, with the assistance of the Rotary Clubs of Centralia/Chehalis, WA, Zamosc Ordynacki, Poland, and Kyiv-Sophia, Ukraine:
- Packaged and canned food for children and adults;
- Headlamps so that students can study at night when electricity has been cut (20 hours a day);
- Rechargeable solar flashlights;
- Power banks, so that families can stay in touch with the 500,000 soldiers on the 1,000 km front line;
- Generators;
- Sleeping bags for people whose homes have been ransacked or destroyed;
- Heating/cooking stoves for people living in a barn or shed on their property;
- Paramedic backpacks (comprehensively filled with lifesaving equipment and supplies, better described as an ambulance worn on the back);
- Winter outerwear for children between the ages of 7-14;
- Toiletries for 120 war orphans waiting in a hospital in Kharkiv, Ukraine, for adoptive or foster parents.
NOTHING we have sent has ended up in the hands of Russian soldiers or Ukrainian black marketeers, as we have a reliable, honest, hard-working international team in place.
In collaboration with The Ukrainian Association of the State of WA, our club also has been able to help Ukrainian parolees in the southern suburbs of Seattle by providing a U Haul truck full of furniture and home goods from our annual rummage sale for the past three years, as well as holiday toys collected from our members in the month of December.
We extend our most heartfelt thanks to our fellow Rotarians for their ongoing support of Ukrainians, both in Europe and here in Washington state. We are making a difference.
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By Nena Peltin