Delaware County Man Gathering Donations At Ridley Park Coffee Shop To Bring To Ukraine
RIDLEY PARK, Pa. (CBS) -- Ukrainians in the tri-state area continue to support their home country. A Delaware County man is gathering donations to take to the war zone.
The donations may be a small gesture here, but in Ukraine, they mean so much. One man is going to take those donations for people in need.
"This is our ministry," Illya Zayarchenko said.
Zayarchenko will be heading to his homeland of Ukraine in the coming days to work as a translator on the border of Hungary and help his friends and family who are suffering overseas.
He owns Ardour Bakery + Coffee in Ridley Park, where he is trying to raise enough donations to drop off along the way at refugee camps in western Ukraine, which are essentially pit stops for people fleeing the hardest-hit areas like Kyiv. Many arrive with only backpacks.
"From those camps, they have drivers who they send and pick those people up to get them out," he said.
But the drive to rescue those in danger and bring them to safety isn't an easy one.
"A lot of times they go there and a shooting starts and they have to turn back and they try again," Zayarchenko said.
While at the refugee camps, Zayarchenko says they receive a lot of humanitarian help from Europe. They have clothes and food, but what they really needed is tourniquets, bulletproof vests, money and emotional help.
Zayarchenko is baking cupcakes and collecting money in a donation box. All proceeds will be personally handed to those in need.
"They are actually dealing with this psychological problem because it's hard to talk to people who just ran away from shootings and bombings," Zayarchenko said.
Zayarchenko wants people in the United States to know, Ukrainians are grateful for the prayers.
"People in the field out there, they feel it every day, every night," Zayarchenko said.
The money will go right to the people in need and there is still time to donate.