LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In Kentuckiana, the outpouring of support is growing for Ukraine.
Jefferson County Public School teacher and native-Ukranian Zladislav Ryabyy is proud of all the support he’s been seeing locally and across the nation. However, he’s worried for his loved ones still there.
"It's terrifying. They are in their basements," Ryabby said. “They're hiding. Sometimes they'll have an air raid siren go off in that little bit of time that they have electricity, and they have 20 minutes to get to a bomb shelter, and they know that they won't make it, so they stay in their apartment hoping that nothing hits."
So far, they're safe, but like many Ukrainians, they're strapped for resources. That's why he's grateful for organizations like WaterStep.
“We have to respond,” Kurtis Daniels, WaterStep’s vice president and director of field operations, said. “It's what we do."
The 27-year-old Louisville-based company is sending 100 boxes filled with a vital, but simple, tool to Germany. The tools will then take a 15 hour trip to Ukraine and be dispersed at various clinics.
"For us to be able to give them some tools to carry in their truck for them to give to their country men and women, we're in,” Founder and CEO Mark Hogg said.
What's in the boxes? They're called Bleach Makers; it’s a tool that converts salt and water into bleach.
“When you think of medical supply lines being cut, when you think of neighborhoods being bombed out in cities, there is not the capability to make anything clean,” Hogg said.
And with the recent attack on a women's hospital in Ukraine, Ryabby said this kind of tool is needed more than ever.
"It's terrifying because you don't know what's going to be hit next and nothing's set up in its place because nothing can be,” Ryabby said.
Ryabby is a 6th-grade social studies teacher, and he’s taught his students about the invasion and the history behind it. He said the response has been overwhelming interest. The students are relating to the crisis and empathizing.
Ryabby even said students contextualized the bombing of the women’s hospital in Ukraine by comparing it to an attack on Norton’s Children’s Hospital.
That pride Ryabby has about the world supporting his home country has turned into hope.
"They're bright and they want to see change in the world,” Ryabby said of his students. “The next step - let's just show them how to make those changes."
Groups like WaterStep are hoping to make that change. The non-profit usually collects shoe donations and sends them to an exporter who sends the shoes to several countries to be sold at affordable prices. However, for now, it is asking for direct donations on its website.
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