The heart of JoCo: Here’s how the county is helping Ukrainian refugees, citizens

As the war in Ukraine continues to shift and often escalate, many in Johnson County are showing their compassion by helping refugees and those still in the country.

It’s been a busy year for Paige Barrows, a former Peace Corps volunteer from Olathe. She taught English in the village of Bilozir’ya in Ukraine from 2010 to 2012 after graduating from Kansas State University.

From chatting with the friends she still has there, Barrows knows those in Bilozir’ya constantly hear air raid sirens. With more than 500 displaced refugees from around the globe taking shelter there and 1,200 men deployed, the hardship is real in the city.

When the situation came to a head in February, she took action to help.

“I just started sharing a lot of information with family and friends. It’s one of our three goals in the Peace Corps, to educate Americans on the culture and society of where we lived and served,” she said. “I had a lot of people reach out to me and say, ‘Hey, how can I help? What organization can I send money to?’ It was overwhelming for me, because there’s so many options.”

The $23,000 she raised has paid for more than a ton of food, medicine and bandages.

She’s one of many citizens in Johnson County determined to help the Ukrainian population with both medical and psychological needs.

Heart to Heart, based in Lenexa, funnels medical aid to the country. Nonprofits around Johnson County have held fundraisers for Ukrainian refugees and those still in their homeland. An art center in Mission, filled with the work of Ukrainian artists, holds art therapy sessions for those traumatized by the war in Ukraine.

But all those involved know more help is needed.

“It’s going to be very difficult during the winter months,” Barrows said. “My small amount isn’t going to help millions, but if it can help a few people as worldwide humanitarian aid slows down, I’m hoping it will have somewhat of an impact.”

Barrows connected with the Kansas City Irish Center, which helped her host a fundraiser in May. She is now directing people to Stand With Ukraine KC, a nonprofit associated with the Ukrainian Club of Kansas City.

She’s continuing to lobby for Ukrainian people, attending protest rallies and traveling to Washington, D.C. to speak with legislators as part of the Ukraine Action Summit.

Heart to Heart reaches out

Since the Russian invasion, Heart to Heart International also has been supplying refugees and Ukrainian residents with medical supplies and personal care items.

Though the nonprofit started out this spring providing aid to refugees who went to other European countries, efforts are now focused on helping those still in Ukraine. Much of that help is medical.

As of the end of September, Heart to Heart had sent $88 million in medications and medical supplies to 12 Ukrainian organizations. That includes drugs for chronic health conditions such as hypertension, high cholesterol and mental health needs.

Along with the medication comes what Heart to Heart calls a clinic in a can. It’s a 20-foot shipping container that’s been decked out to function as a primary care unit, a maternity unit or even an emergency room.

Inside the solar- and battery-powered unit are ultrasounds, X-ray machines and other essential pieces of equipment. Heat and air conditioning make the clinics viable for people to use all year.

“We’re sending these to a number places around Ukraine where the healthcare infrastructure was destroyed by the Russian occupying forces,” said Dan Neal, vice president of operations for Heart to Heart.

For anyone who wants to get involved in a hands-on way, Heart to Heart uses volunteers to sort through the supplies and assemble things like hygiene kits for distribution. More than 130,000 of those kits have already gone to Ukraine.

Neal has seen the vast in-country displacement of people that Barrows’ friends are encountering.

“They’re staying in gymnasiums still today and sleeping in the hallways of hotels, or anywhere they can find a roof over their head,” he said.

On the Ukraine-Slovakia border in Uzhhorod, more than 400,000 people are living in a city whose population is normally around 100,000.

“We’ve seen tremendous ongoing demand for hygiene kits,” Neal said. “It’s been pretty unprecedented in our history as an organization. Typically, this far into a crisis, we’re not seeing a demand anymore.”

The effort is bringing Heart to Heart full-circle, in a way. When it was founded about 30 years ago, Heart to Heart brought medical supplies and help to Ukraine and other former Soviet states in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse. That help continued for about 10 years, until those areas were able to stand on their own.

“We weren’t needed anymore,” Neal said. “Economics developed, and those countries moved toward democracy. Things were looking really positive. Thirty years later, to be back working in Ukraine again — I don’t know if it’s ironic or sad or what exactly, but it’s not what we expected to be working on this year, for sure.”

Help close to home

For Ukrainian refugees here in the Kansas City area, there’s another kind of help available.

Lyudmyla Savinkova, owner and director of Mission Arts Center, is offering art therapy classes to help people process the difficulties they’ve encountered since the war started.

Savinkova, a Ukrainian who has lived in the United States for many years, has friends and family still in her homeland. She opened the center, which displays and sells pieces from several Ukrainian artists, in June.

Having found art therapy useful herself, she decided to offer it to others. Savinkova said trained mental health professionals lead the therapy sessions both over Zoom and in person.

“Art therapy helps with self-expression, self-reflection, helps people process emotion, feelings, etc.,” said Savinkova, who is also president of the Ukrainian Club of Kansas City.

The therapy can include painting, drawing and other forms of art.

Refugees who want to take part can visit missionarts.center/contact and request free art therapy. Savinkova said those who want to help can donate art care packages, as “art supplies are costly and are not the highest priority on shopping lists for refugees.”

This story was originally published October 12, 2022 at 5:30 AM with the headline "The heart of JoCo: Here’s how the county is helping Ukrainian refugees, citizens."