PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A month and a half after fleeing war-torn Ukraine for Philadelphia, two educators are adjusting to their “new normal.”
Alla Pukhtetska and Veronika Matviienko found refuge at the Saint Nicholas Eastern Orthodox Cathedral in Northern Liberties. The church has connections to their congregation in Ukraine and was able to raise enough money to bring the two women to the United States at the end of March.
Now halfway through May, the war is continuing on with no end in sight. “This awful situation is just unimaginable in modern times,” said Pukhtetska.
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The two continue to educate their students, who are still in Ukraine, over Zoom. They wake up early, about 5:30 in the morning, to deal with the time change.
Since then, they have been able to explore Philadelphia, like the Museum of Art and City Hall, but they both say they’re most impressed by the city’s brotherly love.
The church has been gathering money, clothing, medical supplies and other donations, a lot of which are sent to Ukraine. Some of that money was used to bring Pukhtetska and Matviienko to Philadelphia, and the church says more Ukrainians are on the way.
“It’s not safe,” Bishop Luke said of their country. “The whole airport, it’s not working. … [The] Russian army destroyed, like, half [of] Ukraine — destroyed. No gasoline, no food, no anything.”
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Although the future is murky, Pukhtetska said they are ready to lend a hand to people who could be coming to the U.S.
“We’re eager to help anyone who is asking, who is eager to come, because this is the way we were saved,” said Pukhtetska.
In between educating their students, Pukhtetska and Matviienko have also been involved in giving back to their new community. They helped pack donated clothes that will be shipped to Ukraine, sang in a church choir and made pierogies for a recent festival.
“We were very touched, up to tears, because the experience we had to go through was very stressful,” Matviienko said through Pukhtetska, who translated for her.
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The Saint Nicholas church reminds Pukhtetska a lot of her congregation back home, and it’s been a place that has brought her peace during such a hard time.
“It was very difficult to separate myself from the church,” she said. “So when the question was about where to go, where to escape, it was not just to escape from Ukraine. Here, we found a very good refuge. We found the protected place to stay and psychologically become what we were before.”