Posted on Jun 23, 2022
One Ukrainian to Kansas City: We're losing thousands of lives while you worry about gas prices
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Volunteer aid efforts continue throughout the metro, but one journalist with experience in Kansas City worries how price hikes in the U.S. might divert attention from the war.
Anna Yakutenko returned to her hometown of Kyiv for the first time this month.
Now 27, Yakutenko was a reporter for the Kyiv Post when she spent several months in Kansas City, training at KCUR in 2018 as part of the Alfred Friendly Fellowship, a University of Missouri program that brings international journalists to U.S. newsrooms.
“It’s good to be back. But it’s weird, to be sure,"' she said in an audio diary she’d been keeping at KCUR’s request. In February, not long after the Russian attacks began, she fled by train with her 69-year-old mother, Olena Malko, and their cat. They spent the next several months in the western Ukrainian town of Lviv.
Anna Yakutenko returned to her hometown of Kyiv for the first time this month.
Now 27, Yakutenko was a reporter for the Kyiv Post when she spent several months in Kansas City, training at KCUR in 2018 as part of the Alfred Friendly Fellowship, a University of Missouri program that brings international journalists to U.S. newsrooms.
“It’s good to be back. But it’s weird, to be sure,"' she said in an audio diary she’d been keeping at KCUR’s request. In February, not long after the Russian attacks began, she fled by train with her 69-year-old mother, Olena Malko, and their cat. They spent the next several months in the western Ukrainian town of Lviv.
One Ukrainian to Kansas City: We're losing thousands of lives while you worry about gas prices
Posted from kcur.org
Ukraine
Russia
Kansas City
Oil and Energy
Posted 2 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Kansas City's Ukrainian Club, meanwhile, has formed a nonprofit called Stand With Ukraine KC. The group has been raising funds for rapid response grants to several humanitarian groups in conflict zones. Members are working with the Kansas City Royals, the National World War I Museum and Memorial and the city of Prairie Village to sponsor awareness-raising events. Also, they're lobbying elected officials to help bring Ukrainian refugees to Kansas City.
"Naturally, we're disappointed that Ukraine is falling a bit from the headlines," said Andrew Meyer, 38, program director for Stand With Ukraine KC. "But we've also been impressed with the outpouring of support for Ukraine throughout K.C. We're seeing new Ukrainian flags popping up all the time throughout town."
Meyer is a former aid worker who spent four years working in the Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, one of the most heavily targeted areas of the Russian invasion. He met his wife, Karina, a native of the region, while they worked for the same NGO. Karina's mother just came to Kansas City through President Biden's Uniting for Ukraine parolee program while her father stayed back to fight.
Also working through volunteer organizations to send medical supplies, clothes, even tactical gear, is Ukrainian-born Lidyia Gettya, 39, a mother of two girls who works as a math teacher in Olathe. Through social media and internet chat rooms, Gettya learns what some of the immediate needs are on the ground in Ukraine and either mobilizes volunteers elsewhere in the U.S. or takes care of them herself.
“They only have winter uniforms but now it’s summer," she said. “A day ago I went to Costco and bought 40 packages of stay-dry, green T-shirts and insect repellent. All this seems trivial to us but to the guys in the field it’s a really big deal.”
Gettya has stepped up her efforts as she notices people losing interest in Ukraine.
“At first people were eager to support us,” she said. “Now it’s very upsetting that we have such a hard time raising awareness. Most people my age are more interested in Johnny Depp than women and children being raped in Ukraine.”...
..."Kansas City's Ukrainian Club, meanwhile, has formed a nonprofit called Stand With Ukraine KC. The group has been raising funds for rapid response grants to several humanitarian groups in conflict zones. Members are working with the Kansas City Royals, the National World War I Museum and Memorial and the city of Prairie Village to sponsor awareness-raising events. Also, they're lobbying elected officials to help bring Ukrainian refugees to Kansas City.
"Naturally, we're disappointed that Ukraine is falling a bit from the headlines," said Andrew Meyer, 38, program director for Stand With Ukraine KC. "But we've also been impressed with the outpouring of support for Ukraine throughout K.C. We're seeing new Ukrainian flags popping up all the time throughout town."
Meyer is a former aid worker who spent four years working in the Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, one of the most heavily targeted areas of the Russian invasion. He met his wife, Karina, a native of the region, while they worked for the same NGO. Karina's mother just came to Kansas City through President Biden's Uniting for Ukraine parolee program while her father stayed back to fight.
Also working through volunteer organizations to send medical supplies, clothes, even tactical gear, is Ukrainian-born Lidyia Gettya, 39, a mother of two girls who works as a math teacher in Olathe. Through social media and internet chat rooms, Gettya learns what some of the immediate needs are on the ground in Ukraine and either mobilizes volunteers elsewhere in the U.S. or takes care of them herself.
“They only have winter uniforms but now it’s summer," she said. “A day ago I went to Costco and bought 40 packages of stay-dry, green T-shirts and insect repellent. All this seems trivial to us but to the guys in the field it’s a really big deal.”
Gettya has stepped up her efforts as she notices people losing interest in Ukraine.
“At first people were eager to support us,” she said. “Now it’s very upsetting that we have such a hard time raising awareness. Most people my age are more interested in Johnny Depp than women and children being raped in Ukraine.”...
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People worry about what impacts their lives. While it is true it is also unhelpful to say these things to people...it angers them and makes them LESS likely to assist you.
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