By KATIERA WINFREY
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
Indiana is home base for many people with ties to Ukraine.
It’s also home base for the Carmel-based grassroots organization Indiana Supports Ukraine, which launched just a month ago and collects items for the people of Ukraine. It has also been behind several rallies on Monument Circle, denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
One of the group’s founders, Alona Voitko, moved to Indiana from Ukraine when she was 13 years old. Voitko says a lot of her family is caught up in the unrest in Ukraine.
“I’m originally from Vinnytsia, which is about four-and-a-half hours southwest of Kiev,” Voitko said. “So, they’re not in the epicenter, but there were a couple times close enough where they see missiles flying.”
Voitko says there was talk for a while that a Russian invasion would happen, but she hoped it wouldn’t. Now, she says, she fears for her pregnant cousin, a family member recently drafted into the military, and her 96-year-old grandmother.
“She no longer goes down to the cellar to hide because she can’t, physically,” Voitko said. “I don’t think grandma understands the extent of the war because we tried to not mention anything to her so it doesn’t create any rise in blood pressure or any stress.”
Sitting at home in Indiana and watching the war unfold wasn’t enough for Voitko. She needed to take action.
Voitko and a friend started a small collection of items for people in Ukraine, but it quickly grew into something much more. The community responded, dropping off boxes and then more boxes at Voitko’s home.
“And then Elena, who was another individual co-founder, she was like, ‘Let’s create a website. Let’s put it on Facebook,’ and it just became, in the midst of war, an organization,” Voitko said.
Voitko is asking people to check out the organization’s Amazon wish list, which has requests for things like tactical and first aid items.