Hello, friends. My name is Yuliya and I am fundraising to bring 8 of my relatives to the U.S. from war-torn Ukraine.

 

I myself was born in Kharkiv, a city in eastern Ukraine only 20 miles from the Russian border. My parents, sister and I were lucky enough to come to the U.S. as refugees when I was only 8 years old. But not everyone in my family was so lucky. All my mother's relatives remained in Ukraine, and lived there peacefully until February 24, 2022, when the Russian army brutally invaded and began raining down missiles on civilians in Kharkiv, which is now under constant fire. In the picture are my: aunt Irina, who is suffering from lung cancer and desperately needs additional treatment, my cousin Tanya and her mother Natasha, also a cancer survivor, and Tanya's twin 2-year old girls, Stephania and Varya. For the past 60 days, these women, and others in my family who are not pictured, have tried to stay in the basements of their apartment buildings to wait out the war. They did not leave because they simply had no place else to go. But since President Biden announced that the U.S. will accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, I have a chance to save them by sponsoring their applications for humanitarian parole into the U.S. In total, I will sponsor 8 people: 3 women and 2 babies pictured and 3 others (my cousins Marina, Svetlana and her 8 year old son Timofiy).

 

I humbly ask for your help to finance their travel from Ukraine to Tacoma, Washington, U.S.A., where I live. Since airplane tickets and travel expenses will run up to $2,000 per person, I will need roughly $16,000. Please help me save my relatives. They are kind people with very little money. Your donations will be invaluable in getting them out of Ukraine before it is too late. Please write to me if you have any questions.

 

Sincerely,

 

Yuliya Barron