Support Families of Five Dartmouth Undergraduates

We are two Dartmouth Professors who are natives of Ukraine and are raising funds for the immediate family members of five Ukrainian students. Our five Ukrainian students here at Dartmouth each have immediate family members (parents, grandparents and siblings) who are either refugees from the war or still trapped in the warzone.

 

We ask for your financial support to assist their families with funds for food, housing, and living/survival expenses. For the safety of their family members still in Ukraine, we cannot disclose their family names.

 

Each of the students’ stories is briefly summarized below:

 

The first student is from eastern Ukraine. Her mother, two younger sisters and grandmother have successfully fled to western Ukraine, while her father has stayed behind. Both parents have lost their incomes due to the war and need financial assistance to provide for the student’s two younger sisters and her grandmother.

 

The second student is from the area occupied by Russia since 2014. She has parents and a younger sister (14). Neither parent can leave the war zone with her father in hiding to avoid being conscripted by the Russian army. In March, we helped successfully evacuate the younger sister and house her in Germany. Our student is now the sole provider for her younger sister and needs financial support to bring her sister to Hanover, NH.

 

The third student is from Kyiv. Her parents fled to western Ukraine soon after the start of the war, but circumstances have forced both her paternal and maternal grandparents to remain in the warzone. They are elderly people with significant health issues thus making it difficult for them to be evacuated. Our student needs funding to cover her grandparents’ prescription medications which, when available, are now completely unaffordable.

 

The fourth student is from a single-parent home with two younger siblings and a grandmother. The entire family fled to Poland, bringing only two backpacks with food and clothes. The mother now works three menial jobs in a foreign country to make ends meet and needs support for immediate living/survival expenses.

 

The fifth student is from a small village just outside of Kyiv. His family endured several weeks of heavy bombardment and were eventually able to flee to western Ukraine. They have to restart their family craft business from scratch in a new place. In the meantime, they need financial assistance to pay for food and housing.

 

Our students are already working as much as they are legally permitted to work due to their visa status. Regardless, there is not a single day where they don’t feel the stress and pressure of financial responsibility. As their mentors and Ukrainian natives ourselves, we cannot help but see this on their faces and demeanor. We ask that you join us in supporting these members of the Dartmouth community to assist their immediate family members, either still trapped in or refugees from the active war zone in Ukraine.

 

 

Yuliya Komska, Associate Professor of German Studies

Victoria Somoff, Associate Professor of Russian Language and Literature