SARASOTA COUNTY (WSNN) – A Sarasota resident does more than just an act of kindness when she books a ticket to go to Ukraine to help complete strangers.
“I don’t have any connections at all with Ukraine,” Adelia Moyano said. “I just felt compelled to go.”
Moyano was born and raised in Brazil, and currently lives in Sarasota County. After learning about the war in Ukraine, she embarked on a 40-day trip to help the people living there.
“The way I see it, it’s not really a Ukrainian problem, it’s a human problem,” Moyano said.
Moyano says she did not go with a non-profit for a reason…
“Because if you are with one, you are limited to what they want to do,” Moyano said. “I want to help everybody as much as I can and that’s the only way to do it.”
And that’s exactly what she did. Moyano became the liaison between several non-profits driving food and medical supplies into the much-needed areas of Ukraine. The drive also included taking refugees from Ukraine to Poland.
“We’re never supposed to have the car empty,” Moyano said. “Whenever I went to pick up someone, I had the car full of supplies already, so I can take to that area, whatever they needed and bring people back.”
But, helping in a foreign country with no connections to anyone is no easy task.
“It was really hard to help actually,” Moyano said. “Most people there don’t speak English, especially close to the border on both sides.”
Plus, many of the roads and bridges were blown up.
“That’s not on Google maps,” Moyano said. “You get there, and there’s no bridge anymore, so you have to go around there and it would take three hours.”
While people were leaving an active war zone, she was walking right into it.
“It is stressful for sure,” Moyano said. “When you hear the siren, it’s terrifying. But, it just becomes part of your life.”
Moyano saw a lot of horror…
“The saddest thing for me I think was to see the women in the shelters,” Moyano said. “Especially the ones that just left their home because they look dead inside. I’ve never seen anything like that.”
But, amidst the tragedy, Moyano saw beauty.
“You see kids just playing around, kids are just being kids,” Moyano said.
Moyano says it was also beautiful to see how people came together to help during tough times.
“Volunteers from all over the world, coming together for strangers,” Moyano said. “Most of them have no connections to them.”
But, Moyano is no longer a stranger to the people of Ukraine.
“Now, it’s personal to me, I have to help until this thing over,” Moyano said.
She plans to go back and help in about a month.
“I want to make sure the things I take will go specifically to them and it’s not going to get lost in a warehouse,” Moyano said.
She created a GoFundMe page to raise money to go back to Ukraine to provide aid for the people in need. If you want to help, you can find the information here.