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Alethea Shapiro looked at how she could help other Ukrainian families after fleeing to Southwest Florida.
“I decided you know this is such a horrible situation nothing I’ve ever seen in my lifetime where do you begin and so I just began with one family,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro thought Ukraine Take Shelter was a great way for her to help. Shapiro explained what the Ukraine Take Shelter platform is, “The idea is basically in a nutshell, have house need house.”
She had some extra space and signed up. “I kind of forgot about it,” Shapiro says. “A few weeks later the Makelendra’s they contacted me actually they contacted me and another family contacted me.”
In Ukraine, George and Anastasia Makelandra, and their two children Elizabeth and Richard were fleeing. They didn’t know where to go or what to do but they knew they had to keep their children safe.
“That feeling as a parent could make a mistake and this mistake could cost the family’s life,” Anastasia says.”Going through all that and the feeling right now that they are in a safe place and they have a family who is helping and they have all this love.”
Iryna Danyleyko is with United Ukrainian Volunteers says, “I feel like this is my war and everything that I’m doing here I’m protecting my country as much as I can here that’s basically it and if I’m helping then I feel like I’m serving my country too.”
While the Makelendra’s miss their home country, for now, life is here in Southwest Florida.
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