Hello everyone,

We hope this email finds you well.

You must have heard about the horrible war in our home country of Ukraine. Many civilians have been killed and cities have been destroyed. Some of our family members are from Mariupol and we have not heard from them for more than 2 weeks now. We don’t know if they are alive, but we are all hoping for the best.

Luckily, some of our other relatives and close friends with families were able to cross the border and leave Ukraine. They are now in safe places in Europe. However, most of them are women with kids that lost everything and need to support themselves. Their husbands stayed in Ukraine to defend the country.

In the first picture is Anna with her husband Vitalii and their two kids, Michael and Anastasia. They were so happy to celebrate last Christmas all together. Today Anna is in Italy with two kids, trying to find a place to stay. Her husband is defending Ukraine, in a hot spot near Kyiv. Every day we ask Anna for updates and pray he is alive.

In the second picture is Yulia with her adorable triplets. Yulia run from the city of Irpen. Today it's completely destroyed. They left their home at 8 am with one piece of luggage. At 8:30 am all the bridges were bombed and there was no more exit from the city to escape. They were lucky to run on time.

In the third picture is Olga with her two daughters Maria and Anna. Anna is still very little, 15 months old, same as our Monica. Olga crossed the Ukrainian border with Moldova just a few days ago. They are trying to understand now what to do next and where to go.

All of them need to start a new life, all alone, with small kids while their husbands are protecting the country.

We are helping these families and trying our best to support them emotionally and financially.

Since many of you have offered help, we are writing to you today to share this information and give you the opportunity to help if you would like to.

Since there are too many scams these days, we started to collect money on this Gofundme account. We will split the money between the families that we personally know and send it directly to them. We will also keep some reserved for those who still are planning to leave Ukraine and will need some support as well.

We will be sharing with you stories and pictures of families that we helped together.

If you are willing to share this email with anyone you know who wants to help too, please feel free to do so. Together we can help many Ukrainian families in need.

Any contribution, whatever the amount, will be extremely helpful. Even a dollar will go a long way in helping these families and will be highly appreciated.

Thank you, everyone.

Stay safe.

Helmy and Rytov family.