Yonkers residents send medical supplies, clothes to Ukraine war zone
The congregation at St. Michael's in Yonkers focused on medical supplies to help people hurt by the fighting in eastern Ukraine, which began during a 2013 political crises that turned violent
YONKERS - A relief drive to help people displaced and wounded by war in eastern Ukraine started with spring cleaning in Yonkers.
On Thursday, members of St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church donated wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, canes and other supplies to the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, which is collecting the materials to ship to eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed groups are fighting the country's elected government.
Oksana Kulynych said the idea for the relief drive came to her while cleaning her house.
"I had this extra wheelchair and I immediately thought of what's going on in Ukraine," said Kulynych, who posted a notice in St. Michael's church bulletin seeking more donations. "People whose parents are elderly had a lot of these things in their houses."
The congregation focused on medical supplies to help soldiers and civilians disabled by the fighting, which began during a 2013 political crisis that turned violent with an insurgency by Russian-backed groups.
Bojko Watters, the office manager for the Philadelphia-based UUARC, said her charity will take the items donated by St. Michael's congregation and combine them with other donations to fill a 40-foot container that will be shipped to Ukraine.
Images of Syrian refugees walking through Europe and scenes of devastated cities in Syria have moved the world's attention away from eastern Ukraine since July 2014, when insurgents shot down a Malaysian Airlines commercial jet, killing 283 passengers and 15 crew members.
But the Ukrainian conflict hasn't ended. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that almost 10,000 people have been killed in the fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Although all the supplies were loaded and sent to Philadelphia on Thursday, relief efforts will continue.
"We'll have to do this again because I still have people contacting me about donations," Kulynych said.
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