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Kristina (left) and Ildika Shetalia pose for a photo on the Eureka waterfront.

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them options.”

As soon as he got word the family wanted to send Kristina to live with them, Steve Knight began making calls, and reached out to North Coast Congressmember Jared Hu man’s o ce for help. The o ce relayed that the Biden administration was working on a sponsorship program to help Ukrainian refugees and said to sit tight. Soon, Hu man’s o ce called back to report that Congress had passed the Uniting for Ukraine act to allow U.S. citizens to sponsor Ukrainians to enter the country — streamlining the immigration process to allow them to come to the United States for two years. The Knights said the application process was pretty seamless, and soon plans were in place for Ildika to bring Kristina to the United States, with Ildika returning to Ukraine after about a week of helping her daughter get settled.

Kristina is now starting her junior year at Eureka High School, where she’s befriended a Finish exchange student here through the Eureka Rotary exchange program. Steve Knight said everyone is getting used to the new setup, noting he and Dianne haven’t had kids in the house for more than a decade. (He said Ryan warned him not to smile too much or Kristina might fi nd it o -putting.) But things are going well and it feels good to help, he said.

He encouraged people to look at the program, saying it will help them identify Ukrainians looking to be sponsored and noting that sponsors don’t have to host the Ukrainians in their homes, they just have to pledge to support them and help them integrate into the community by fi nding them housing and jobs, connecting them to social services and schools.

“People should look at it,” said Steve Knight, who will be speaking at a local informational meeting on the program Sept. 17 at 10 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church of Eureka (819 15th St.)

Kristina said, though she’ll miss her parents, she was grateful for the opportunity.

It’ll be better because I won’t have to hear and worry about the war,” she told the Journal in Ukrainian, with Ryan Knight translating. “It was really hard to study and understand that at the same time people are fi ghting so you can just be.”

Ildika, for her part, said she’ll miss her daughter but takes solace in the fact “it’s not like the old days, when all you had was letters,” adding she’ll video chat with Kristina regularly. She said she’s grateful for what the Knights have done, saying it will give her daughter a chance to get a real education and, hopefully, return to help rebuild Ukraine. It’s an opportunity she hopes will be extended to other families, too, urging Americans to do what they can.

“Everyone needs to help,” she said. “Ukraine was not ready for this. Our country needs support.”

Just this week, after Kristina started school safely at Eureka High School, it was reported that the start of the school year had been delayed throughout much of Ukraine to allow the military to check school buildings for land mines before children returned. ●

Thadeus Greenson (he/him) is the news editor at the Journal. Reach him at 442-1400, extension 321, or thad@ northcoastjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @thadeusgreenson.

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