South Floridians Helping Orphans, Driving Ukrainian Refugees Hundreds Of Miles To Safety
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Over 3 million Ukrainian refugees have left their country with no idea when they will return. It's a humanitarian crisis that has motivated some of Floridians to go overseas to help.
"Normally we're not in an active warzone. The hurricane comes through it's gone, we get in and work, and yes we have trees down, and we have to get through, and this is very different," Alison Thompson said.
Thompson just came back this week from helping orphans from the Romanian side of the Ukraine border.
"There's shelling, there are Russians hiding. Our team was making our way to a certain area, two days ago but then they were being shot at by Russians."
Even with gear identifying who they are, volunteers have come close to being hit.
"The Russians don't care, they're bombing women and children and they say they have a ceasefire and then they bombed the hospital, you can't trust them."
The work can be dangerous at times, but supplies and help are needed as much as ever. And Thompson is not the only person from South Florida who's volunteered to help.
CBS4 caught up with Lisette Barton who met before she left Friday. Barton, a school teacher, left with a team of friends and acquaintances. They're currently in Poland.
"There's our van, there's our flag, there's our stuff," Barton said.
One of Barton's goals was to donate supplies and help shuttle refugees. Tuesday, she was in Chelm to pick up a family of four and take them to a new place to stay. In the meantime, she is undergoing a vetting process to cross the border to help refugees.
"We drove from Warsaw to the Dorohosk, went there and the border seems to be going well, there's probably about 25 cars going into Ukraine and for the time we were there, which was about an hour, we didn't see any cars move," Barton said.
She shared photos of supplies stacked up, then explained that they are quickly absorbed by families that come through. Barton has already extended her stay for two weeks to help. Thompson will be traveling back next week.
CBS4 will check back in with them on their journey and provide new updates.
