Uniting for Ukraine

Becoming a US citizen was life changing for two women born in Ukraine.

However, Olga Beishir and Svitlana Parks are concerned about friends who are in the United States on a humanitarian program, Uniting for Ukraine (U4U). This program provides support and assistance to refugees and immigrants affected by the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Their friends are in the process of making a life in the United States. If the program ends, they would become illegal.

The crisis in their peace-loving homeland now involves starvation, overhead missiles, drones and bombs killing everyday, raping of women at gunpoint, and military boots on the ground.

Olga describes this contrast of today’s war with Ukraine as a country of peace and her small home town of Poltava of colleges and people who never imagined war. Now her town is known for “the best fighters out there.”

In her hometown of Zaporizhia, Switlana says she grew up being bored. When the Iron Curtain of Communism ended, her community felt a Renaissance, a renewal of life. Concerts and theatre were a part of life, and her parents had fun and danced to the accordion. At parties they toasted peace to all; however, her father remembered the war and its consequences in 1947.

When she married an American five years ago, she left an enviable lifestyle in Ukraine. Switlana had a good job, drove her own car, and owned apartments. Now her friends in Zaporizhia, the size of Austin, live in panic while they experience boots on the ground with bombing every day. Their stadium, a source of pride, has been destroyed.

Before I could take her picture, Switlana had to hurry off to meet a client in her massage studio in Columbus where she is a therapist. But not before she set an inviting table for tea in Ukranian style of hospitality—beautifully-patterned china, matching table cloth, flowers and snacks of assorted nuts and crackers.

“Ukrainians like to feed people. It’s our way of showing hospitality to guests and friends,” said Olga.

Both women talked about President Zelinsky and how he is admired and respected like a hero who stands up for the people during these last three years of war.

Olga came to the US ten years ago after her marriage in Ukraine to a Peace Corps worker, who is a graduate of Texas A&M. They have two children.

Before coming to the US, Olga attended medical school for two years in Poltava. Because she did not want to take the extra class time to become a doctor, she got her degree in chemical engineering from the University of Houston.

Now she wants to fill her life with gardening, hobbies of music and painting and the keeping of animals. She wants the teas from her garden of herbs and flowers to become a business. Now her herbal teas can be found at Southern Flair on the Square in Columbus.

“We appreciate the support of the American people. We hope war will end soon and for independence from Russia. We want to rebuild Ukraine the way it was before Russia invaded,” she said.