Help Ruslan Get His Parents To Safety

I met Ruslan in the September of 2021, when he was looking to volunteer at our organization, AK Health and Social Services (AKHSS). He agreed to volunteer at our after school program that was designed to help disadvantaged immigrant students. On his first day, we walked together to AKHSS’s center in downtown Lewiston, Maine. As we walked, we got to know each other and he shared his story, accomplishments, and dreams. He is currently the only Ukrainian student at Bates College and graduated from the prestigious Kyiv State Ballet College as a highly skilled professional ballet dancer. His accomplishments were many and varied: he has won top awards for his works in theater, ballet, and literature. His debut novel, an exploration of Ukrainian social issues, was deemed the best novel of Ukraine in the 2019 nationwide literary competition.

I could tell Ruslan had an ardent sense of purpose and a bright future. When we arrived at the center, the way he connected with the students in the after school program spoke volumes about his giving character. Since then, Ruslan has become an invaluable member of our community, working tirelessly to provide support for our immigrant, refugee, asylum seekers and BIPOC communities.

Today, Ruslan’s dreams have been put in jeopardy. He was forced to leave his hometown of Donetsk during the 2014 Russian military invasion. Now, he is confronted by a challenge that no student should have to face: worry for his parents’ safety. His father remains stuck in a city near the western border of Ukraine while Russian forces continue to attack; his mother has fled to Hungary as a refugee but lost everything in the process. Ruslan now worries for family’s safety while focusing on his education at Bates College and pursuing his dreams. As someone who lost everything to war and grew up in a refugee camp with nothing, I can only imagine how difficult this is for Ruslan. I am asking for your help to support an incredible young man with a bright future to realize his dreams of continuing his education and getting his family to safety. Ruslan is an upstanding community member who has devoted his spare time helping refugees. He deserves all of us to stand with him. All donations will go directly to Ruslan’s account and will be used to resettle his parents in safety as well as to support his education through the financial strain the ongoing war has caused him and his family.