Help us sponsor a Ukrainian family

Thank you for taking the time to consider a contribution to help our sponsored family - Volodymyr, Olha and daughter Yuliia - rebuild their lives here in the United States after leaving Ukraine. The family has left behind all that they know and brings with them only what fits in their suitcases. With your help, we can welcome them and help them create a new life. (See more of their story below.)

How can you help?

Many of us have considered ways to help counter the devastation of the Ukrainian war. Our volunteer team of seven families has come together to support this Ukrainian family in building a new life in Minnesota, and we need your help. As their sponsors, we will help Volodymyr, Olha and Yuliia get established in every way; from finding housing and furnishings to building languages skills and seeking employment, to registering for insurance, school, medical services, and numerous other aspects of making a new home in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Area. We are partnering with Alight, a MN-based non-profit agency dedicated to assisting families like these.

Our responsibilities as volunteer sponsors for the family are to:

While the family will qualify for support in light of their legal status, there will be a period between their arrival in Minnesota and the start of these services and supports. From the moment they arrive, the family will need housing, food, clothing, transportation and other essentials. Your gift will help make this possible in the first weeks and months as we assist them in navigating through their new lives here, and establish a safety net as they become employed and gain financial independence.

Thank you for your generosity in helping us welcome this family to a safe new home where they, too, can enjoy a life of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

More about this family's story:

Volodymyr shared these details about the circumstances that led to the family's decision to leave Ukraine and seek a new life in the US:

In the beginning, I will say that a lot of Ukrainians did not believe that there would be a war. On February 24, 2022, we woke up at about five in the morning from a series of powerful bomb explosions, there was no information on the news, the Internet was not working and it was impossible to understand what was happening. An hour later my Boss called (he lived in Kyiv) and said that Kyiv and other cities were being bombed. So we understood that the war had begun. On the first day, it was not clear what to do, explosions were heard from all sides in the port, at the airfield, at military bases. «Air raids alarm», explosions on the ground and in the air, Russian warships on the horizon, all this was very difficult for Yuliia and Olha. At some point, Yuliia began to have panic attacks. It was hard to realize, that there was nothing you could do to protect your family. After another bombing, we decided, Yuliia and Olha needed to move away from the war. They went to our friend's mother's in Italy. I stayed in Ukraine. The road was very difficult for Olha, the car broke down in the center of the Romanian city Bucharest, it was scary to stay in the middle of the street with a child in a foreign country. Olha found help from local volunteers, and they got to Italy in two weeks. Life in Italy is expensive and difficult, and without knowing the language it is impossible to find a job. ... A few months later, they thought about returning home. But at this time, frequent rocket attacks on our city began, and we decided that it was not time to return. At that time I still had a job and I helped our volunteers. But soon the work ended and I decided to join the family.

The life we knew before the war, our plans and dreams are gone forever. The savings we had has already been spent. We had hoped that the war would end soon and we could return home. But now we understand that the war will not end in the near future and we need to plan the beginning of a new life.