OUR COMMUNITY
Local Effort Effecting Change A global network is sending Ukrainian civilians supplies, battling Russian propaganda. ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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Jenny Feterovich at a protest March 6 in Hart Plaza
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ussian Five (2018) filmmaker Jenny Feterovich, a Soviet Jewish immigrant, is on the phone day and night organizing supplies and medical care for Ukrainian civilians stuck in the middle of war. One hour, she’s working on Jenny Feterovich finding shelter for nearly two dozen orphans. Another, she’s assembling what she calls a “laundry list” of firstaid items, like bandages and tourniquets, for Ukrainian soldiers and civilians injured in attacks by the Russian forces. “I’m getting phone calls from various groups,” Feterovich says, “and they’re saying, ‘I need x, y and z.’ Through our channels, we’re getting things delivered.” The Bloomfield-based filmmaker, who immigrated to Metro Detroit from Moscow in 1989, has strong ties to Ukraine. Her wife was born in Crimea and lived in Kyiv for most of her life. “This is highly personal to me,” Feterovich, 46, says. “We have friends, family and people who work for us [in Ukraine].”
As part of a global network of people assisting Ukraine in its fight against Russia, Feterovich works with contacts in Germany, Poland the Netherlands and more to get people to safety. “In real time, I’m helping people either get out, get situated once they cross the border or helping people inside the country,” she explains. “It’s all-hands-ondeck.” THE SITUATION IS ‘MINUTE-BY-MINUTE’ In the city of Kherson, which became the first major city in Ukraine to fall to Russian forces, there is only one man left baking bread for a population of nearly 300,000. “He’s baking 24/7,” Feterovich describes. “We’re on a mission to support him so he can continue to feed the people. Unfortunately, there’s not enough Red Cross on the ground. It’s regular people that are trying to accomplish these things.” The global network that Feterovich belongs to was assembled on a whim, she explains, going up in a matter of days ready to assist millions of Ukrainians trapped without food, shelcontinued on page 18
MARCH 17 • 2022
