To Ukraine, With Love, By Jondi Gumz

To Ukraine, With Love

By Jondi Gumz

Before Russia invaded Ukraine, Milan Dubec was a tech CEO in neighboring Slovakia. After the invasion, he turned his office buildings into shelters, helping 1,900+ Ukrainian refugees eat, shower and rest, providing cloting and shoes, funding relief efforts himself, with his sister-in-law in Wales on the phone trying to raise money.

Red Cross veteran Stephanie Jenkins, who lives in Capitola, wanted to help. A nutritionist with expertise in “mobile

Stephanie Jenkins with two of the children she’s assisting.

feeding,” she searched online, discovered what Milan and his wife Renata were doing in Zilina, Slovakia, near the Czech and Polish borders, and made plans to fly to Vienna, Austria, where a driver would make the four-hour trip to bring her to Zilina, where she is staying for three weeks.

She does not know the Slovak language, but she is not worried.

“I’ve got Google translate,” she said before she left on a seven-hour flight. “I’m trying to learn a couple words. It’s amazing how you can talk with your heart.”

Already she is a friend of Milan Dubec on Facebook and has sent photos of some of the child refugees she is assisting.

On Wednesday, Camp Zilina welcomed a special guest, Zuzana Caputova, president of the Slovak Republic.

Milan Dubec is posting updates on his work on Facebook, one on March 31 titled “True stories from Camp Žilina” with photos: • The story of O ľga Vinogradova, 37, with a 2-year-old son and mother-inlaw Natalia, 64.

O ľga Vinogradova, her 2-year-old son and mother-in-law Natalia.

They come from the city of Dnipro. They left for the bombing. They went by train to Čop, from Čop by bus to Košice and an older son, who came with another family to Liptovský Mikuláš, advised them to go to Žilina. Husband stayed in Ukraine. They consider that they will only stay here for the necessary time, until victory.

“Ukraine, With Love” page 14

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