Ukrainians hosted by Washington Rotary talk about devastation in their country
“Most of us will not go back to our native towns and villages, because they have been destroyed,” according to Aina Kyrpychova, speaking through an interpreter. “It is very hard to move somewhere and start over from scratch.”
Kyrpychova made this observation Tuesday when she talked with members of the Rotary Club of Washington. Kyrpychova is one of six Ukrainian women who has been in Washington since last Friday in a visit hosted by
Washington’s Rotary. During their visit, which will wrap up this Friday, they have spent time at a Ukrainian Catholic church in Carnegie, toured a women’s shelter in Pittsburgh and talked with officials at Washington City Mission.
For the remainder of the week, they were set to have lunch with state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, and meet with representatives of various nonprofit groups, including the Literacy Council of Southwestern PA, the Common Ground Teen Center and the LeMoyne Community Center.
“Working with these six women from Ukraine has been eye opening,” said Kathy Sabol, president of Washington’s Rotary Club. Members of the club have been “introducing them to facets of American life, so they can go back and help their own communities.”
The stop in Washington by Kyrpychova, Olga Altunnia, Alina Matviiv, Valentyna Uvarova, Alina Atamas and Olga Tkachuk happened as a result of the Congressional Office for International Leadership’s Open World exchange program. All six women work in governmental and nonprofit roles in Ukraine, and Washington Rotary put together programming for the week that suited their area of interest, which is conflict resolution and peace building.
During their lunchtime talk, the six women vividly discussed the horrors that have unfolded in Ukraine in the three years since Russia invaded, and just how elusive peace building and conflict resolution is there. They talked about sexual violence, family separation and relentless drone attacks.
“We all come from a country where war is raging right now,” Altunnia said. “If it were not for American help, Ukraine would have collapsed by now. We are very grateful to you.”
Uvarova said that she was forced to move to another part of Ukraine “and start over. …There are thousands of other women like me. You lose your job, you lose people you have known through most of your life.”
She added, “It is very hard these days. The bombardments happen virtually every day.”
After the Rotary meeting, the six Ukrainian women and members of Rotary placed a “peace pole” at the Patriot’s Pavilion on Main Street in downtown Washington.