ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Millions of Ukrainians have fled their homes and thousands are seeking safety in the United States.
A St. Augustine couple wanted to help sponsor a family, but didn't know how until they got connected with a program that brought two Ukrainian sisters and their children into their lives. Welcome.US was created last year to help Afghan refugees and is now helping Ukrainian families.
"We love having them," said Elizabeth Langland, a sponsor for the Ukrainian sisters in St. Augustine.
You can feel the love as sisters Liudmyl Rybak and Inna Novak sit with Langland on her couch. The sisters fled Ukraine with their two children, but they had to leave their husbands, parents and Rybak's oldest son behind.
Much of their communication, including for this interview, happens by talking into Rybak's phone through a translator app.
"It was a very difficult decision," Rybak said through the phone translation. "But when all the atrocities of [Russia] came to light, my husband said that I had to leave Ukraine immediately with my youngest child. That's why we made this difficult decision."
The nonprofit Welcome.US has a database that connects American sponsors to Ukrainian refugees and provides information on what sponsoring a family entails. The president of Welcome.US describes a sponsor as a guide and first friend for a refugee who helps them with finding a job, enrolling their kids in school, navigating the bus system and helping them find housing or housing them themselves.
Langland says many of her neighbors stepped up to help, including a couple down the street from her and her husband who are co-sponsors.
"Everyone from the owner of the unit apartment they're renting who wanted to reduce the rent and cover their utilities," she said. "Everyone was just stepping forward with generous acts."
The president of Welcome.US says more than 150,000 Americans applied to be sponsors in the program's first six months.
"The only thing left for men is to win for Ukraine and for all of us, hold on," Rybak said through her phone translator.
Rybak and Novak plan to one day return home to Ukraine. They miss the rest of their families. However, Rybak says the ocean and sunshine have been good for her and their children. The sisters have their own apartment and both have jobs and say their kids are engaged in afterschool activities.
"I am also morally and emotionally recovering," she said. "It is good."
"They're safe and they are in regular touch, of course with their families and we're in regular touch with them," Langland said. "But we now have a new family."
"You are our family too," said Novak.
Langland encourages others to get involved with helping refugees.
"It's been one of the most extraordinary and meaningful events of our lives," she said.