Interview with Yuri Boyechko, President of the Ukrainian Foundation
Yuri Boyechko, President of the Ukrainian Foundation, arrived from Lviv, Ukraine, to the United States in 1997. A lawyer by training, he launched the Ukrainian Foundation in Portland, Oregon in 2006 and has served as its President for almost 20 years. He is the editor for Ukrainian-American Community Magazine, KAHOH and served on the Board of Directors of the Mennonite Loan Fund from 2007 to 2011. This interview was conducted on April 30, 2024 and has been edited for clarity.
Ukrainian Foundation
The Ukrainian Foundation, based in Portland, Oregon was established in 2006 to assist the over100,000 Ukrainian immigrants in the region adjust to their new home in the United States. The Foundation holds social and cultural events for the broader Portland communities and provides services to all who seek assistance. Since 2014 it has worked to provide life saving medical equipment and supplies for frontline personnel and hospitals in Ukraine.
JT: When I say ‘Ukraine’ what is the first word that comes to mind?
Pain. Sadness. Sometimes unbearable pain because of what’s happening now in Ukraine.
JT: What is the Ukraine Foundation and why was it created? How has it evolved since its founding?
We started in 2006 assisting Ukrainians who had suffered religious persecution under the Soviets to prepare for refugee status interviews with the US Embassy in Moscow. Yes, Ukrainians still needed to travel to Moscow for interviews; it was either Moscow or pay for a visa and go to the US Embassy in Poland. You have to apply for refugee status outside of the country of your citizenship. The majority of the Pentecostal Ukrainians we assisted were from the west but also the east and south of Ukraine. Once they were granted refugee status and emigrated to the United States, we understood that they still needed help in accessing the services that were available to them to ease the transition and navigate the unfamiliar processes so the Foundation began to offer legal services, health care access, housing and other assistance. We work with any refugees who come to us for assistance.
Then, Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity of 2014 occurred and Russian annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine so the Foundation immediately began to provide assistance directly to Ukrainians in Ukraine. My cousin began to buy medical items to send to Ukraine through Medical Team International, a Portland, Oregon-based NGO which was sending containers worth millions of dollars of donated equipment and necessary medical items to military hospitals in Kyiv and L’viv. The Foundation paid for the shipping. Medical Team International provided the equipment and supplies directly to military hospitals at that time. I visited the hospitals where the doctors and staff voiced their deep appreciation for the important life-saving equipment and medical items received.
Then in 20200, Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We had to shift our work and fundraising efforts to purchase trauma medical kits for the soldiers on the frontlines. We couldn't get these items donated so we had to pay for them.Thankfully, an American-based airline company allowed our volunteers who were traveling to Ukraine bringing these life-saving kits to check 10 bags for free! It saved us over $350,000 which allowed us to purchase more medical items. I don’t know how to thank the airline enough for this incredible in-kind donation which made such a difference to us. The airline has now had to cancel this policy but in the early days –what a difference it made. Now our volunteers and family and friends travel to Warsaw and then onto Ukraine with at least two checked bags of medical items so the shipment costs are negligible.
The non-time critical shipments we now sent via normal shipping method, paying per pound. In the beginning, we were buying everything people requested, but now, because of limits on funding, we have narrowed our focus to the most important, lifesaving items: tourniquets, chest seals, etc. Click here to make purchases from the Ukrainian Foundation Amazon Wish list.
JT: What are the primary requests from Ukrainians on the frontline?
Since 2014 when Russia invaded the Eastern part of Ukraine, the Foundation began shipping medical supplies to those fighting to protect their cities from that invasion which continues to this day. The primary needs now include: tourniquet for critical bleeding (ex: САТ or SICH); tourniquet for pelvis injury with inflatable cuffs (ex: Sam); Israeli bandage size 4″, 6″, 12″; topical hemostatic agent and/or dressing; hemostatic bandage with radiopaque lines (ex: Combat Gauze or Quikclot); chest seal with and without valve;burn dressing of various sizes, face and body (ex: burnshell); emergency/compressive bandage; and, safety scissors. To donate click here.
JT: How does the Foundation ensure the donated items are received in Ukraine?
The Ukrainian Foundation has a NGO partner in Ukraine, iCare-Ukraine which relay documented needs requests from the frontline to the Foundation which then compiles the requested supplies and sends them via their volunteers who fly to Warsaw to meet ICare Ukraine volunteers. These volunteers then drive them into the country, assemble the kits and distribute them to the frontline units.
JT: How has your perception of Ukraine and Ukrianians changed in the last thirty years of independence or 10 years of war? What changes have you seen over time?
For decades, we had this hope that we would be free from Russia. Before 2014 we knew that it would take years or even generations to break from Russia, but we still had this hope. So many people believed that our future was still with Russia but after 2014 and especially after the full scale invasion by Russia of Ukraine in February 2022, I’ve seen those people who wanted to keep the relationship change. They now see the creature we’re dealing with. Yes, we’ve lost a percentage of land and many Ukrainians who left won’t come back. But we still have hope to build a prosperous, democratic, religiously tolerant nation. When war ends, I want to put a huge monument to the man who united Ukraine….Putin. Ha!Ha! Ukraine is more united than ever. We believe that we will win.
JT: What is the biggest need among Ukrainian people?
Tourniquets. Tourniquets. Tourniquets. There are a lot of needs, but we’re working almost exclusively on purchasing and supplying tourniquets. If you only have the funds to buy one thing, buy and donate 1 tourniquet. It’s the most important thing that we need to send over there. You can purchase items from our Amazon wishlist to ensure the most critical items are sent to the frontlines.
