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Local Ukrainian-American who traveled overseas to help refugees shares harrowing experiences
A local food pantry is feeling the impact of higher food prices as donations for those in need have dipped as people struggle to put food on their own tables.
PHILADELPHIA - A Ukrainian-American educator from Philadelphia flew to Romania a week ago to help refugees fleeing from their war torn homeland.
FOX 29's Jennifer Joyce first spoke to Svetlana Tikhonov a week ago, on the eve of her flight to Romania to travel to the country's border to help Ukrainian refugees.
Tikhonov is the founder of Quadrat Academy, a Montessori middle and high school in Northern Liberties. In the days leading up to her trip, school collected supplies for her humanitarian journey.
Tikhonov personally collected monetary donations through givebutter.com with a plan to use the funding on the front lines.
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Philadelphia woman heads to Ukraine to help refugees besieged by war
A local Ukraine-American boarded a flight to Romania with a goal of reaching Ukraine to help those fleeing the ongoing war.
"We’re bringing the money there, and I’m going to hopefully provide supplies: medical aid, housing, anything we need to do not he ground," Tikhonov said.
A week later, Tikhonov described the emotionally distressing moments she has witnessed in her short time on the Romania-Ukraine border.
"A baby so scared because the house was bombed baby would not let go of her mother," Tikhonov said. "There was a woman recently was giving her a ticket her hands shaking — she couldn’t hold the ticket."
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Philadelphia man reunites with Ukrainian wife who escaped war-torn homeland
The husband of a Ukrainian woman shared the story of his wife's harrowing escape from her war-torn homeland as Vladimir Putin's Russian army commenced a full-fledged invasion two weeks ago.
Tikhonov's selfless journey to Ukraine is backed by an equally strong show of support stateside. Three weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, another truckload of supplies destined for Ukrainian refugees sat outside the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee in Philadelphia.
"This truck tomorrow morning is going into one of our warehouses where we will load a 40-foot container shipped to Poland," Yury Nakonechny said.
Nakonechny and his team are calling for more volunteers to help sort and repack donated items before they’re shipped overseas.
MORE ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE
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- Russian lawmaker demands return of Alaska, California's Fort Ross
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