Supporting Ukraine From Severna Park

Tetyana Khalanych and her son, Adam Didouchevski, are working with their church to gather supplies for Ukraine.

Posted Thursday, April 14, 2022 4:48 pm

By Zach Sparks l zach@severnaparkvoice.com

In the city of Drohobych, located in Lviv in western Ukraine, Tetyana Khalanych’s former school now serves as a refugee camp. Children share the space with people fleeing their homes in Kyiv and Mariupol, targets of the Russian invasion.

Khalanych and her husband moved to Severna Park from Ukraine 17 years ago. They raised their son, Severna Park High School graduate and current University of Maryland student Adam Didouchevski, in Severna Park.

Her father, her brother and her brother’s three kids remain in Ukraine.

“They are afraid and anxious,” Khalanych said. “They don’t want to leave Ukraine. They believe in our victory. My brother said they have just this country and they will fight to the last breath.”

Khalanych has been collecting medical supplies and nonperishable food with other members of St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Silver Spring, Maryland. Together, they have been “moving mountains” of humanitarian aid by airplane to areas bordering Ukraine.

“Ukraine is full of little ants right now,” Khalanych said. “Everyone is working together.”

One of those “little ants” is her nephew, Sam, who works for the city municipal guard and helps refugees get settled.

Khalanych checks in with her family several times a day for updates. In times of war, reality can be hard to separate from propaganda. When images emerged from the city of Bucha, showing the bodies of Ukrainian civilians in the street, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the photos as a “forgery” meant to denigrate the Russian army.

But Khalanych does not need the news to inform her when she has family witnessing the carnage firsthand.

“People are hiding underground in basements for weeks,” she said. “In some places, they are not given access to humanitarian aid. This is genocide and terror, nothing like military war. The Russians are destroying houses, destroying churches, destroying hospitals. Two-hundred kids have been killed.”

Her estimate might not be wrong. According to data from juvenile prosecutors in Ukraine, 176 children had died in the invasion as of April 10.

Across Severna Park and Arnold, other people have become inspired to offer their help. Dr. Karina Spivak is collecting children’s clothing and plush toys at Spivak Orthodontics. She is working to find a refugee entry point in Poland or Slovakia where she can send those items.

“I have a lot of cousins, aunts and uncles in Ukraine, and they are all displaced,” she said, explaining that relatives from her and her husband’s families have left Kyiv, Irpin and Busha to seek refuge in western Ukraine. “Most of them have grabbed just bare necessities when they fled their hometowns.”

The Foundation for Community Betterment, an Arnold-based nonprofit, is aiding a volunteer fire department in Wola Radziszowska, Poland. That fire department is helping refugees get settled by providing lodging and clothes. Former Betterment board member Julie Chamberlain met the fire department president Malgorazata “Gosia” Lubowicka in 2018 during Chamberlain’s trip to Auschwitz, when Miami University hired Lubowicka as its tour guide and translator.

Heather Symons has a brother living in Warsaw, Poland, with his family.

“They have been delivering needed food and other essentials to the Warsaw train station where thousands of refugees are staying on a daily basis,” Symons said.

To help him, Symons and her family have been fundraising in the U.S. — locally through the Jones Elementary School PTA and the “Annapolis Moms” Facebook group. Every cent goes directly to the Ukrainian refugees, she said.

The funds have been used to purchase thousands of pounds of fruit, hundreds of hygiene products and six strollers for an orphanage that took in more than 100 Ukrainian children. They also furnished a safe house used by women and child refugees.

At the national level, UNICEF, the American Red Cross and many other organizations are helping Ukraine and accepting donations.

Khalanych said the support is keeping Ukrainians resilient. For the sake of her fellow Ukranians, especially the civilians and children, she hopes the conflict ends soon.

“A family of four kids was brought to our city and they lost their mom in the bombing … you can’t even describe the horror in the eyes of those kids,” Khalanych said.

“Right now, I would ask the community to help my dear Ukrainians. Please stay united for Ukraine.”