Rebecca Gelinas is fundraising
Provide Humanitarian Aid & Evacuations in Ukraine
At 5am on February 24th, Pavel and Elena were woken up by the bombing of their local airport. They then realized that to continue helping the women and children of Ukraine, they’d have to evacuate them from the front lines.
They have worked since 2014 to help orphaned children in Ukraine to become a part of loving families. Elena and Pavel adopted 7 children of their own, and realized that their educations as a doctor and lawyer respectively were not sufficient for helping their own children with their psychological trauma. They went back to school to increase their knowledge, and soon found themselves a resource for their friends who also wanted to adopt children. They therefore worked with KidSave and created systems of mentorship for both the children and parents that have helped to end the cycle of orphans in Ukraine.
However in February of 2022, orphans in Ukraine had to deal not only with the trials of being without a family, but also with the outbreak of Russia’s war. Pavel and Elena received calls from the networks of people they’d helped over the years, asking for their help in escaping the warzones of Ukraine. It was then they decided to risk their own lives to better those of others.
Pavel: “...our whole team was called angels of hope. But we’re just doing what we think we should for our people, our nation, and our women that we want to save.”
As of speaking to them on June 7th 2022, they had evacuated 20,000 people and brought 58 tons of humanitarian aid to those still living in the buffer zones between Ukraine and Russia.
This fundraiser is being organized by members of a class on the Ukraine Crisis at the University of Arizona that had the privilege of talking to Elena and Pavel between their heroic endeavors. We are working alongside the organization KidSave International. We hope to provide them money for food, fuel, and other resources they need to help on the front lines of the Ukraine crisis. Please help us to further the mission of these angels of hope!
More information about Kidsave International: Kidsave's Vision is a world where every child is nurtured from birth, where the loss of human potential due to neglect is absent and where people everywhere care enough that all children, even those abandoned, grow up in stable, loving families. Kidsave gives preteens and teens who are living in orphanages temporary foster homes and group homes loving parents and lifelong mentors through family visit and superb mentoring programs. All of the children we serve have experienced the trauma of loss.
- A
- J
- R
34 supporters
