Kupriyan Family Fund – MHJC to Ukraine

Manetto Hill Jewish Center has “adopted” a family from Ukraine.  Since the war started, we have been doing our best to support this family financially and emotionally.  

As you click the links below and learn about Ohla, Sashko and Yasha and wish to make a donation to support them, please click this link and follow the provided steps.

BACKGROUND AND THE BEGINNING – 2022

It is said that “Anyone who saves a single life, it is as if they save the entire world”.  At MHJC, we have “adopted” the Ukrainian family of Olha Kupriyan, her husband Sashko, and their daughter, Yasya.

Olha is a Ukrainian writer of children’s and adolescent literature. In her early 30s, she recently fought off cancer, only to find herself displaced by war. While all men were required to stay in Ukraine to fight, Olha and Yasya escaped to Poland. Their village of Makovyshche, in the Kyiv region, is one of those that was brutally occupied and then vacated by Russian troops. Piecing together reports from the media, neighbors and family members who have since returned, Olha describes a house that, among widespread destruction, was miraculously still standing but had been broken into and that, to her mind, has been “raped and changed beyond recognition”.Yasya recently suffered a badly broken arm while playing on a playground in Latvia. While Olha has been able to obtain some income by working on some short-term creative scholarships offered by various institutions, to do so she has had to travel hundreds of miles to Latvia and then to Krakow.  Such an itinerant lifestyle is not serving Olha and Sashko’s daughter well, as she’s experiencing difficulties adapting to every new and unfamiliar environment, each speaking a different and foreign language. Unfortunately, given her daughter’s poor physical and mental state, Olha is now unable to work at this time, as she needs to prioritize caring for her daughter.Meanwhile, Sashko remains in Kyiv and is trying to maintain his job as a typesetter. However, with much of the Ukrainian publishing and printing industry destroyed or gone fighting, he’s been told that it’s not clear if he will be paid.Olha and Yasya are remaining in Krakow through the end of July at which point they are hoping to return to Kyiv to reunite with Sashko. Of course, those plans could very well change if the war worsens in Kyiv.There are two ways in which we can help. The first is to assist them monetarily. Right now, they both continue to receive half of their Ukrainian salaries although they do not know how long that will continue. Since Sashko has some income to sustain his needs for the time being, we are focusing on the funds needed to sustain Olha and Yasya in Krakow. They need money for food, transportation, healthcare, psychotherapy, clothing and occasional childcare.The second way we can assist is to communicate with them via letter, email, etc. to provide emotional support. We cannot even begin to imagine what they are all going through.  Yasya was not only uprooted from her way of life but, most importantly, cannot even be with her father. While going through her own emotional upheaval of missing Sashko and worrying about his safety, Olha has to remain strong for her daughter’s sake. We will post email addresses to contact the family soon.On behalf of Olha, Sashko and Yasya, thank you so very much for making a positive difference in their lives and helping them during this stressful time.