'It's Heartbreaking': Belmont Native Helping To Rescue Children From Ukraine
BOSTON (CBS) - Refugee worker and Belmont native Jennifer Hill took cell phone video of two Romanian babies and their surrogate mothers who escaped from Ukraine. They were in need of immediate emergency medical attention.
"There are two children between three and ten days old when we evacuated them and transferred from ambulance to the helicopter. The infants that were evacuated from Kyiv," Hill said.
Hill is with Refugee Protection International or (RPI) a non-profit based in Belmont that responds to humanitarian crisis situations around the world and partners with local grass roots organizations on the ground to offer support. RPI helped facilitate and fund this rescue in Suceava, Romania which is about nine hours from the Ukrainian border.
"It's heartbreaking," Hill said. "Ukrainian refugee women who are living at the shelters have shown me photos of their destroyed housing and damaged housing. One mother has two children who are four-years-old and seven-years-old and her entire flat was just destroyed."
For the past week she's also been helping a local nonprofit in Kyiv called Bright Kids Charity. They are focusing on children with disabilities and pregnant mothers who are seeking shelter and medical care.
Eliza Petrow of Watertown helps run RPI back home and communicates with Hill several times a day. "I'm incredibly proud of Jennifer. Jennifer is always someone who goes to the front lines wherever it is," Petrow said. "We need donations desperately, financial donations."
Hill says she plans to be in Romania for one more week but plans to return again soon. "We just purchased $10,000 worth of medicines and maternity supplies that need to get to the hospital on the Ukrainian side of the border," she said.
Hill says the need for humanitarian aid almost seems endless. Since 2015 RPI has helped serve more than 380,000 people around the world.