Thanks for taking the time to sit with us to share your story with our readers. Can you start out by sharing a little bit about you and/or your organization, business, or project?
Hello, I'm originally from Odessa. When the war started, I spent a month volunteering in Poland where I met a lot of amazing folks but one of them deserves special mention. We became close friends and are now partners in crime as we have been working together for the last 6 months helping with what we can one of the battalions in Ukraine. She is a refugee from Kyiv and currently is in Germany with her son while I'm here in the US, WA
Everyone has a story about how they got started, what was the inspiration or the catalyst for you?
Burning desire to help in any way I can. Must have been my ancestors that were woken up when I saw the tanks moving toward Kyiv on 2/24/22. I have never felt more Ukrainian or wanted to be one with "my people" than today. From day one, I threw all my energy into working on anything and everything I possibly could trying to cope with the grief we are all experiencing daily for the past year.
Tell us about a time that you faced a challenging situation in your life, organization, business, or project. How did you find a solution, or over-come the challenge?
Assisting refugees in Poland was not only hard physically, but it was also emotionally trying. We ended up being so much more than just people that served food to them. So many were looking for a shoulder to cry on, for someone to listen and all I could do is to support them before I would step outside to cry my eyes out for them before I had to go back and do it all over again.
people & organizations every Ukrainian supporter should know
Running a business, an organization, a project is not always easy. What have your learned about yourself, about others along the way?
Don't give up or pay attention to the critics. There are always people that will try to talk you down to make themselves look good or to justify why they don't want to get involved.
We've all had that one moment that makes what we are doing worth it all. Can you share with us a story about the moment that really impacted you and touched your heart?
When our first large fundraiser completed successfully and we received the video from the front line form our boys thanking us with huge smiles on their faces - we knew that it was all worth it.
If you could go back in time and give your self some advice on how to manage your business, nonprofit, or project, what advice would you give?
Better prepare and make sure that you look at a problem in hand from a "big picture" perspective
If a potential client, donor, partner were reading this article right now, what would tell them about you, your team to convince them to choose you?
We are not an NPO, we don't have an overhead cost. We do everything ourselves (me and a small group of volunteers that are helping me when time permits). We cover any transfer and shipping fees ourselves thus ensuring that every dime donated to our brave soldiers or for the kids living in the awful unimaginable conditions of Winter Ukraine, reaches its goal. We never ask for something abstract - we always have a very specific goal and share updates, pictures, and feedback with our donors. We are working with people, the very people that need help so it becomes very real when our participants or sponsors are able to get "hello" or "thank you" from the front line and see that their resources went to good use.
What is one fact about you, your business, your nonprofit, your project that most people might not know?
While we try to communicate in Ukrainian when we don't speak English, we are actually originally born and raised in Russian Speaking families and haven't really started talking Ukrainian until 2022
Where do you see your business, nonprofit, project going in the next 3 or 5 years?
Hopefully, the war will end soon and we will be able to create something more official so we can participate in rebuilding our beloved motherland
It was so great sitting with you to learn more about you. How can people find out more about you, your business, nonprofit, or project?
Reach out directly to me via my email or via social media. We have tons of materials and info to share
Thank you so much for sharing your story with HiHelloUkraine Story!
Thank you
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