Friends, although my husband and I have helped those in need before to the best of our abilities, this is my first experience directly trying to help someone in need via a GoFundMe campaign. I never imagined that we would find ourselves hosting a refugee family that had lost everything and literally had to run for their lives only with few possessions they could carry.

This is the story of Skrypchenko family from the besieged city of Mariupol, Ukraine. The city that has been continuously shelled and bombarded by the Russian military for almost two months now, the city that found itself surrounded by unfriendly forces and cut off from the rest of Ukraine and the civilized world. This is the place that saw probably the highest civilian casualties, with tens of thousands likely dead and wounded and hundreds of thousands more made homeless. The same city saw the cruel and brutal bombardment of a theater full of civilians hiding in the basement and the unnecessary destruction of a maternity hospital.

When the war broke out, Alex, Tetiana and their 5-year-old daughter Hanna hid in their apartment buildings basement. On the fourth day of the war, their building lost all power, heating, water, and all means of communications. The only source of drinking water was from melted snow and later from collecting rainwater. Food was scarce as well. Alex had to scavenge for food by putting his own life at risk to try to save his family. An explosion nearby left him partially deaf in one ear and had possibly caused a concussion. The Skrypchenko family spent 40 days in the besieged city, watching their neighborhood gradually reduced to rubble. They’ve witnessed events no civilians, and especially no children were meant to see and experience. When their daughter spiked fever and supplies completely ran out, they decided to move across the city in attempt to escape. They walked for two days in freezing temperature until they reached a nearby village where they could spend a night in relative safety and catch a little break. Unfortunately, there was no way for them to cross the frontline to come back to friendly territory, and they had to surrender themselves to the Russian occupying forces and hope for the best. After spending a few days in the ‘filtration camp’ enduring repeated interrogations and then making their way through a foreign county, they were able to make it to Istanbul, Turkey and eventually to the United States.

My husband went to grade school with Alex and kept in touch. They haven’t seen each other for over 25 years. We are the only people they know in the United States, so we welcomed them into our home, and we want to help them start a new life here, but we cannot do it alone. They are beyond grateful for the help they’ve already received from volunteers and complete strangers, but they need a little jumpstart. They need to find a place to live, reliable transportation to get to work and resources to buy basic necessities of life. If you find it in your heart, please make a donation that will help this family start the next chapter of their lives. On their behalf, I thank every one of you for reading their story and considering this plea for help. Anything helps