Watching daily news reports of the horrors and atrocities taking place in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, Northwest Baltimore resident Anna Iankova initially thought about returning to her homeland to help out with relief efforts there.
“When this nightmare started, I was here but all of my family was there. I was a mess,” said Iankova, 31, a native of the southeastern Ukrainian city of Melitopol who moved here in 2012 and became a U.S. citizen last year. “I first thought I’d go there and volunteer. But then I got myself together and felt like I can do more from here.
“And that’s how it all started, and I discovered that so many people were interested in helping, too.”
With the assistance of Beth El and Chizuk Amuno congregations, Iankova is spearheading a community-based donation drive to send medical supplies to a logistics center in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. The supplies will then be distributed to different cities and refugee centers in the region. Other supplies will also be sent to Kiev and Odessa, Baltimore’s sister city in Ukraine.
Among the supplies requested are emergency thermal blankets, body wipes, first aid kits, tourniquets, duct tape, thermal underwear, feminine pads, insulated food thermoses, hot hand warmers, wound care kits, knee and ankle braces, reading glasses and antibiotic ointments. Sealed, recently expired items or newly purchased items will be accepted.
Several truckloads of supplies are being sent to Ukraine every two to three weeks, and local businesses and health care organizations are underwriting the costs for truck rentals for pickup and shipments overseas.
Among those companies are Absolute Home Health Care, where Iankova works. She said the company’s Ukrainian-born managing partner, Daniel Trosman, has been instrumental in recruiting different businesses in helping with Iankova’s efforts. Among them are Labcorp, Valley Pediatrics Associates and MedStar Union Memorial Hospital.
Iankova — whose ailing grandmother, parents and sisters remain in Ukraine and Russian-occupied Crimea — said she has also received boxes of supplies shipped to her home and office from anonymous donors.
“It’s so inspirational to me that so many people, who I don’t even know, care and just have called me to help,” said Iankova, who graduated last year from Towson University with a degree in accounting. “From my heart, I cry everyday and I have no more tears. People have been so generous. We just need medical supplies to help the people there.”
Said Rena Lapidus, chair of Chizuk Amuno’s Gemilut Hasidim (act of loving kindness) committee: “We are gratified to facilitate the collection of the requested medical supplies. We all feel so helpless standing by witnessing the humanitarian crisis that is occurring in the Ukraine. People just want to do something to help.”
Iankova said she also needs food for dogs and cats in Ukraine. “So many people are dead, but some of their animals have survived and are running around in the streets to find food,” she said. “We have to help them, too.”
To contribute to the Ukraine Donation Drive, bring donations to Absolute Home Health Care, c/o Anna Iankova, 7920 McDonogh Rd., Suite 103, Owings Mills, Maryland, 21117, or email annaiankova@yahoo.com, Beth El’s Cantor Melanie Blatt at melanie@bethelbalto.com or Chizuk Amuno’s Rena Lapidus at renalapidus@msn.com.
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