Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
Helping her homeland
Manor College alum tells of friends, relatives in war-torn Ukraine
For 33-year-old Olya Yarychkivski, the ongoing Russian invasion into her native Ukraine has been “heartbreaking” to watch as the events continue to unfold.
“It feels like it’s been weeks, but it’s just five days,” Yarychkivski said in a phone interview earlier this week.
Yarychkivski, a former Montgomery County resident now living in New York, recalled fond memories growing up with her younger sister Oksana and her parents Lesya and Yosyp in Nadvirna, located in the western part of Ukraine.
“I grew up in a smaller town that was just perfect, peaceful, beautiful life, wonderful childhood close to the mountains, beautiful river — a lot of happy childhood memories playing with many kids on the street safely,” she said.
Yarychkivski said that “it was a bit tough in the ‘90s in Ukraine. We didn’t have everything. Sometimes we were a little limited in our resources, but overall I had a wonderful family, a wonderful upbringing, a lot of care, a lot of emphasis on education.”
Her parents and sister moved to the U.S. in 2003. Yarychkivski stayed in Ukraine with her grandparents while she finished high school. She came to the U.S. in 2005 to attend the Jenkintownbased Manor College where she studied biology and science. Manor College was founded in 1947 by 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 PhD 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-yearold 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