Help Yuliya Help Ukraine

As many of you know, before I moved to Charleston in 2011, I was born and raised in Ukraine.

This has been a tough day...week...month...

Luckily my mom is in Charleston, but my dad, uncle, aunt, cousin, and multiple friends were not as lucky and are still in Kiev or other parts of Ukraine.

For a lot of them conditions are too dangerous to leave. I hear their stories firsthand while speaking over Skype and Viber: 30-hour wait at the Polish border, men 18-60 (or even older) not being able to leave, or even Ukrainian citizens being killed by Russian soldiers while trying to leave. The dead people in the streets, the radio silence when the air raid sirens sound, the rationing of food, and the general fear of what the next day's attacks will bring is just terrible.

People ask how they can help. While prayers, goodwill, and hope are certainly appreciated: the inevitable lost wages from not being able to work, the destruction of our hometown, and countless other costs from having your city bombed and attacked during war is hurting in ways we can't even imagine.

Many of our friends asked where they could donate or send us money to forward where we felt it was needed most.

As much as I wanted to be able to say: "donate to [fill in the blank] charity", we were all worried about waste, fees, and whether the money would actually benefit the people who I know need it. One of our friends urged us to start a GoFundMe as others felt the same way.

Rob and I, will be helping my family and friends with food, aid and money. I also have friends who can direct me towards smaller funds in Ukraine that can help distribute to other groups, that my family (my sister is also here in SC) will be donating to.

No matter where/how you choose to donate to help Ukraine, I am forever grateful! If you would like to contribute to this GoFundMe campaign and trust me to direct the funds to the best place/use possible, then I would be honored to do so in your names.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. And thank you in advance for your contribution.

Yuliya