Help a young Ukrainian Family Resettle in Texas

Hello from Allie and Jared (and baby Harlow). We live in a small town outside Austin (Lockhart) and have chosen to be sponsors for a Ukrainian family fleeing to the US.

We are raising funds for the Lieman's - Olha, Anton, and Mariia (9)- to cover their costs in resettling the Austin, TX area.

Who are the Lieman's?

Olha and Anton have been married for more than 10 years and were born and raised in Luhansk in Eastern Ukraine near the Russian border. Their daughter Mariia (9) was also born in Luhansk.

Shortly after giving birth to Mariia in 2014, Russians invaded and occupied Luhansk. Olha and Anton were forced to flee with Mariia, abandon their lives and careers, and start over. At the end of 2020, Olha and Anton gave birth to a second daughter, Valeriia. Unfortunately, she was born with severe health issues.

Fast forward to Feb 2022: the Lieman's are living and working in the town of Bucha just outside Kiev. Anton and Olha launched a business building and designing high-end furniture. Olha also fundraised for a local non-profit supporting victims of domestic violence.

Once again, Russians invaded, and they are forced to flee in February with both of their daughters - Maria and Valeriia.

In Olha's words --We were escaping Bucha on Feb 25 - we went left. If we had gone right, Russians were shooting civilians.

They escaped barely what is now known as the "Bucha massacre" - a war crime that included hundreds of executed civilians.

Olha, Anton, Valeriia, and Mariia were able to arrive in Germany.

Sadly, baby Valeriia passed away in Germany due to her health issues shortly after arriving.

Where are they now?

After recovering from this tragedy, Olha, Anton, and Mariia have been in limbo for a year in Germany without the legal ability to work.

Olha and Anton are eager to start fresh in the US, working and becoming part of a community. A sense of normalcy. And Mariia is excited to be able to practice tennis again.

What does the fundraiser support?

We're asking for funds to cover the initial costs of settling in Texas before the Lieman's can find a job. 100% of these funds will go towards necessities to start a life in the US, including (but not limited to):

Why is this important to us?

A very special person in our lives, Edith (and her husband Frank), were refugees welcomed to the US during World War II.

Edith and Frank were blessed to have made it to America in their 20's, but America was even more blessed to have them here. (Edith considered herself a "New Yorker" until the age of 102 and used to say "we Americans..." :-) ).

Having spoken with the Lieman's for months now, we have found them to possess similar qualities to Edith and Frank - they are authentic, devoted, and unbelievably resilient.

Not only will they benefit from living and working in the US - the US will be a better place with them here.

We've all donated time or given money to causes and wondered if it mattered. With absolute certainty, these funds will monumentally change the course of the Lieman's lives for the better.

If you have any questions (or ideas of how you can help them get acclimated through jobs or housing), please reach out to Allie or me directly ([email redacted]).

P.S. Finding jobs quickly will be their top priority so I'm listing some of their professional details below:

Anton is educated as a civil engineer - proficient in using Archicad for building design and Autocad and Solidworks to design furniture for the likes of VamGroup. He's produced drawings and designs used by contractors and CNC machines. You can see an example of his projects on his website here.

Olha is educated in English and has experience teaching English as a Second Language. She speaks, read, and writes Englsih very well and has worked as a social media manager, B2B sales manager, and fundraiser for a non-profit in Ukraine.