Help Us Provide Homes
for Ukrainian Seniors
Giving hope to those whom the war made homeless
Donate Today
Act today so we can place more people before winter comes
Adopt a Grandparent
Get connected with a verified senior to directly support him or her long-term ($125-200 monthly commitment)
Sponsor a Home
Pledge to sponsor a housing unit for two to four seniors for a period of up to 12 months ($400/500 a month for 6-12 months)
Our Mission
The war forced millions of Ukrainians to leave their homes and flee to safer regions of the country. Many of them are seniors who cannot afford housing in their places of refuge and live in overcrowded makeshift shelters (repurposed schools, kindergartens, manufacturing facilities, etc.). We find and fund apartments and houses for small groups of these seniors to share comfortably, homes where they can live in dignity and regain a sense of security, which for many of them is a matter of survival.
Our Goals
We started out hoping to give 100 elderly displaced Ukrainians a place to stay for a year. But the war has no end in sight, and we want to make sure these 100 people have a home through the next cold months and beyond.
Project Update
We set out a year ago with a simple plan: find homes for 100 elders for a year. We did it. We need to keep helping the ones we're already looking out for and hope to bring in more who need a safe spot. With your help, we can make sure everyone has a warm place to call home.
Our Results
• The program is 12 months old.
• 117 people have received our support.
• Currently, 97 people hosted.
• Spend $72,000
97
People hosted at this moment
30+
People on our waiting list
6
People whose housing arrangements are in progress
$7,000-10,000 each month
Funds needed to cover program cost
News Coverage
A KQED journalist spent some time with us in western Ukraine in the summer of 2022 to capture the work we do with refugees. Here’s the excellent story and photo essay that resulted from that trip, providing an inside look at UKR’s mission:
Hope for Older Refugees of War: A Bay Area Resident's Mission to Save Older Adults in Ukraine
Updates
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October 6, 2022
On the surface, it may appear that the war isn’t being acutely felt in Chernivtsi and Ivano-Frankivsk. Both cities are having a lovely fall season…
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September 29, 2022
This week I crossed the border from Romania to Ukraine for the third time in the last four months. It was somewhat different this time: I walked…
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August 9, 2022
Friends, with your help, we have already found houses for the winter for more than 17 people.
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August 6, 2022
We met Angelina at a shelter three days ago. The 81-year-old president of a gardening association from Mykolaiv had been living with her cute puppy…
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August 2, 2022
Internally displaced from Severdonck and Kramatorsk living in daycares, schools, and musical schools: many with no homes to go back to even when it is possible.
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August 1, 2022
Remember Vika and Alisa, the two girls from the village of Niy-York, in the Donetsk region, who became orphaned almost in front of us?..
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May 28, 2022
When we volunteer in Ukraine, the hardest part for me is the stories They keep me awake at night like those real people who live through nightmares.
Stories
Who We Are
We are a group of American and Ukrainian volunteers who work on the ground in western Ukraine directly with internally displaced elderly Ukrainians.
Elena Akopova
Angelina Solorio
Maria Golovanevskaya
Ksusha Lomazova
Yana Sikorsky
Anastasia Pryazhnikova
Catherine Hoang
Maria Smirnova Galbo
Yevgeniy Sverdlik
Stanislav Shoupletsov
Anna Gnatiuk
Why We Are Doing This
Healthy and happy seniors are a sign of a healthy and happy community. A safe and comfortable home is fundamental to anybody’s health and happiness, and that’s doubly true for the elderly, for whom a sense of security and stability can be a matter of survival. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s government and large humanitarian-aid organizations have been unable to provide enough support for elderly refugees to secure housing that can give them that sense of stability and comfort.
Seniors are different from other refugees. They need more care. They are more fragile and more vulnerable, often unable to earn income while having higher expenses due to declining health. Those of them without family close by often find it hard to survive. The war in Ukraine has amplified all these difficulties by leaving them homeless.
We want to make their lives better given the circumstances until the war is over and their homes are rebuilt.
Partner and Volunteer Spotlight
Elena Akopova and her humanitarian organization We Are With You — our partners in Ukraine
Elena is a strong, funny, and kind human. She comes from the Donetsk region, which she left back in 2014, forced to relocate to Kyiv with her son and mother after Russia started the war. She then formed a humanitarian organization and volunteered to help children from internally displaced families. On February 24, 2022, Elena had to flee again, this time from Kyiv. She quickly regrouped and started helping people fleeing the war find new places to live.
We are now working as a tag team, helping elderly refugees secure housing together. You can help Elena and I by donating to our project in one of the following ways:
Ukrainian Bank Account
We are With You
Project: Under the Kind Roof
Найменування отримувача: ГО МИ З ТОБОЮ
Код одержувача: 40685960
Рахунок отримувача у форматі відповідно до стандарту IBAN: UA463052990000026006005021832
Назва банку: АТ КБ «ПриватБанк»
Your donations are tax-deductible thanks to our partner, Leleka Foundation. Leleka (its name is the Ukrainian word for “stork”) procures and distributes critical medical supplies to Ukraine’s defenders and civilians on the frontlines. The 501(c)(3) non-profit organization was formed in 2014, at the start of the Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, by a group of Ukrainian Americans. At the time they joined forces with several volunteer initiatives in Ukraine to source and distribute medical and first-aid supplies to paramedics, emergency crews, and hospitals. Leleka has since gained unique expertise in tactical combat care and emergency trauma supplies front-line medical professionals need to save precious lives.