2 minute read
Help for ukraine
Moon Valley Resident Recently Travels to Washington D.C. Seeking Peace and Help for Ukraine
Mike Baraban, a 1 st generation Ukrainian American living in Moon Valley since 2003, traveled in September to Washington D.C. as part of a 5-member Arizona delegation to attend the Ukraine Action Summit. The Summit was an event on Capitol Hill focused on communicating with members of Congress about how to bring peace to Ukraine as soon as possible and then to help rebuild Ukraine. The Summit was attended by nearly 300 individuals and 33 organizations from around the world within and beyond the Ukrainian community. About 150 meetings were held with representatives across both the House and the Senate as well as the State Department. In addition to representing the Arizona Ukrainian American Community, Baraban, an attorney, represented the Ukrainian American Bar Association, a national organization of Ukrainian American Attorneys. The timing of the meeting was critical with there being over 10 million displaced Ukrainians and winter quickly approaching.
Advertisement
The Arizona delegation completed meetings with 9 of 11 Arizona members of Congress. Attending a couple of those meetings were combat medics flown in from the front line to brief members of Congress on the dire circumstances at the front lines. “Hearing the stories of the brave Ukrainian soldiers only
underscored the urgency of our delegation’s mission in Washington, D.C., to seek the help Ukraine needs to achieve peace”, said Baraban. Another emotionally moving part of the Summit, was a slide from a playground in Irpin, Ukraine on display showing extensive shrapnel damage. “As the father of a 12-year-old, I did not want to let my mind go to thinking about what would have happened had a child been on the slide when the shrapnel struck”, stated Baraban.
One of the lead local organizations providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine since Russia’s unprovoked invasion has been St. Mary’s Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Ukraine in downtown Phoenix. Volunteers organized by St. Mary’s have organized and packed 7 truckloads of medical and humanitarian supplied donated by local hospitals, first responders, and other individuals and entities and then paid to ship those items to Ukraine with donated funds. To donate to St. Mary’s, go to: Donate to Ukraine – St. Mary’s Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Phoenix, Arizona (pokrovachurchphoenix.org)
