Guest Commentary: Rotary Club of Wilmington reaching out to Ukraine

Rather than huddling in the bathroom, some have no bathroom and, indeed, no home. Since the start of the war, about 14 million Ukrainians have been displaced from their homes, 6 million of whom have remained in Ukraine. Some have families or friends to take them in, but many live in shelters that can exist only with the help of the rest of the world. They need beds and bedding, appliances, furniture, food, clothing, medical supplies, clean water — everything.”

Joan DelFattore is a retired University of Delaware professor. She has been active with the Rotary Club of Wilmington for 26 years.

Last night wasn’t too bad, Mykola told us. He and his family had to spend only an hour huddled together in the bathroom, after the warning sirens woke them. Why the bathroom? Because it has no windows to shatter if a drone hits. Or maybe a missile. One never knows.

Mykola Stebljanko lives in a southern town in Ukraine, called Odessa. Early in the war, Russian warships began bombing the city from the harbor. Then, the Ukrainians blew one up, and the ships moved farther out. Now, he said with remarkable calm, there are just the missiles. And the drones.

Mykola is a former district governor of the Rotary Club’s District 2322, which encompasses all of Ukraine. Speaking on Zoom to the Rotary Club of Wilmington at its May 4 lunch meeting, he told us about his work as chair of the Rotary District 2322 Disaster Coordinating Committee, which meets twice a day, every day. Its difficult task is to identify the most immediate needs for Rotary help in an environment that is ever-changing — and not for the better.

Some are less fortunate than Mykola. Rather than huddling in the bathroom, they have no bathroom and, indeed, no home. Since the start of the war, about 14 million Ukrainians have been displaced from their homes, 6 million of whom have remained in Ukraine. Some have families or friends to take them in, but many live in shelters that can exist only with the help of the rest of the world. They need beds and bedding, appliances, furniture, food, clothing, medical supplies, clean water — everything.

Hoping to play some small part in meeting those critical needs, the Rotary Club of Wilmington has launched a fundraising campaign, Rotary Stands With Ukraine, with the goal of raising $200,000. The funds will be channeled through the Rotary District 2322 Disaster Coordinating Committee that Mykola chairs. In that way, our contributions will efficiently reach Rotary Clubs all over Ukraine, as they respond to the most urgent needs for food, water, shelter and other necessities of life.

All contributions will go toward providing relief for displaced persons in Ukraine, with no administrative overhead because all the work will be done by Rotary volunteers.

The cornerstone of the Rotary Stands With Ukraine fundraising campaign will be a May 18 Ukrainian-themed dinner featuring the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, via video, and speakers Iryna Mazur, Ukrainian consul to Philadelphia, and a refugee from Ukraine who has fled to the United States.

Ticket sales for the dinner are closed, but you can make a fully tax-deductible contribution of any amount at  rotarywilmington.org/ukraine-project-2023. Or you can send a check made out to the Rotary Club of Wilmington Services Foundation, with a notation on the check that it is for the Rotary Stands With Ukraine project. Checks should be mailed to the Rotary Club of Wilmington, 100 W. 10th St., Suite 1006, Wilmington, DE 19801.

So, please, take a look around your safe, secure home that you have every reason to assume will still be there when you return from work or from shopping or from driving the kids to band practice. Then, imagine what it would be like to stand looking at the place where that home used to be, before you gather your family, pull together whatever possessions you still have and set off on a train for a new life. Then, please, give what you can to help the millions of people for whom this is not imagination but all-too-solid reality.