A pair of Mercer Island High School juniors are focused on supplying the “human element” to a brutal situation that has left Ukrainians fleeing their homeland and waiting to enter the United States.
Best friends Simona Yaroslavsky and Matthew Smith will be flying to San Diego on Thursday as part of a group of volunteers, which includes Simona’s mother, Rouslana, to aid and comfort Ukrainian refugees at the Mexico/United States border. The refugees have arrived by the thousands after flying into the Tijuana International Airport more than a month after Russian forces began invading their country.
On March 24, President Joe Biden announced that the United States would allow 100,000 refugees into the country.
“The volunteers down there right now are really overworked and understaffed. The border agents can only process 300 per day and there are upwards of 2,000 who often wait for days and days on end,” said Simona, 16, who speaks some Ukrainian and Russian and will help with translation along with distributing food, water, diapers, hygiene items, board games, money to use the bathrooms in Tijuana and more.
“Anything that we can really just do to help make the lives of these people easier as they’re waiting to enter the country,” said Smith, 17.
Simona said the Islander musicians will bring their trombones to provide tunes for the refugees, and Rouslana added that they’ll also help with paperwork, meet shuttles and help find temporary housing while teaming up with The Coordination Council for Refugees and Jewish Family Services.
A mixture of motivation and nervousness resided in Simona’s mind as the days counted down to the group’s departure. Their volunteer shifts will begin on Friday and they’ll fly back home on Monday.
“I know how fast things can change down at the border. I also know this is one of the most human experiences you can go and help out with. In a time of humanitarian crisis, maybe one of the only things you can do is try and help out the best you can,” she said.
Simona, who has family from Ukraine and southern Russia, said the war is a personal issue for her and she originally wanted to go directly to Ukraine or Poland to volunteer. She has yet to hit the age 18 mark to volunteer in Europe, so her mother suggested the trip to the Mexico/United States border.
“I see myself in those people and I think it’s an instinct of mine to go help when there’s such a major humanitarian crisis as this is,” said Simona, who has raised more than $2,200 for children on the border through her fundraiser at https://gofund.me/8e382509.
Added Smith, who’s heartbroken that refugees’ lives have been upended: “I’ve been following the war in Ukraine basically ever since it had started. I had talked with Simona about possibly going to Ukraine, somehow figuring it out over the summer and volunteering just because it was something that mattered to me.”
Smith will also bring his camera in hopes of capturing photos to share with others and help raise awareness about the issue upon his return to the Island. He said two people have already reached out to him and asked how they could lend a hand.
“It feels fulfilling on a personal level to be able to go and help those people,” he said.
Rouslana said her daughter has been involved in volunteerism since elementary school in the Fair Oaks area of California. Over the years, she helped distribute free books in Spanish and English to ESL kids, helped fundraise for the library and was a volunteer musician and teacher for kids during a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math Festival.
“I am very proud, a bit nervous, and not at all surprised,” Rouslana said as she prepared to take a massive and crucial step forward alongside Simona and Smith on their volunteering journey.
