Homeland

the Sisters of Saint Basil the Great and continues to have strong ties to Ukraine.

Yarychkivski resided in the Huntingdon Valley area while at Manor College until 2007. She went on to Drexel University until 2009. She then moved to New York for graduate school at Columbia University where she graduated with a Ph.D. in 2017.

Yarychkivski currently works as a post-doctoral scientist at The Rockefeller University in New York.

Fearing for relatives

While her “very immediate family” is living in the states, Yarychkivski said that many of her relatives are still in Ukraine amid the Russian invasion.

“Some of my cousins are in civilian territorial defense, some of my cousins are in the active military and we don’t know where they are,” she said.

She added that her 80-year-old grandmother lives about 12 miles from the airport that was bombed.

“She is a tough lady who is doing her part in this,” she said. “She has a full house of refugees right now taking care of them, cooking for a ton of people, keeping them safe and I’m very proud of her.”

“A lot of my friends will not even leave the country,” Yarychkivski said. “They’re resolute to stay and fight, and the only goal is to essentially get the children to safety, but all of my male friends (are) … either fighting in the military or civilian territorial defense or actively engaged in evacuations and transporting people from dangerous areas.”

“A lot of my friends are not leaving,” she continued. “I think it’s very brave and this is what has to be done and I’m very proud of them.”

Helping from afar

Now a U.S. citizen, Yarychkivski is doing what she can for those in need nearly 5,000 miles away from her homeland. She’s organized rallies and is focusing on humanitarian relief efforts.

“It’s very scary and heartbreaking what’s going on, but I’m also very resolute in keeping the hope up, and just doing everything that I can as well to help over there,” she said.

Yarychkivski co-founded a nonprofit, Razom, in 2014. The nonprofit aims to “unlock the potential of Ukraine,” according to the organization’s website.

“I’m working a lot on evacuation,” she said. “We have successfully evacuated some of our very close friends, some of our friends are still under siege in Kyiv. We’re trying to evacuate children with difficult conditions and different sicknesses that need medical treatment.”

Additionally, Razom is engaged in an “emergency response” that’s “focused on purchasing medical supplies for critical situations like blood loss and other tactical medicine items.” Supplies include bandages, tourniquets, gauze, and satellite phones that will go to the civilian territorial defense units on the ground in Ukraine. For more information, visit razomforukraine. org.

Yarychkivski said she’s been touched by kind words she’s heard from strangers, colleagues and her friends near and far.

“It’s really heartbreaking,” she said. “I mean I’ve broken down many times like to random people just being on the phone with my IT department of my university, or talking to my boss, but I have witnessed tremendous support from a cab driver, to just every single person that hears that I’m from Ukraine.”

“There’s tremendous support. I’ve got tons of messages from my friends in the U.S., in Europe, some people I haven’t been in touch for years,” she continued. “I just really think it’s a lot of outpouring for Ukraine — we feel it all. We are very grateful to everybody.”