A Journey from Ukraine

We were in the maternity hospital when a rocket exploded nearby, blowing out all the windows on the first floor. We were evacuated to the corridors and spent about a day there. My wife was very scared, and we realized that staying in the city with newborn children was extremely unsafe.  

This made the decision easy. As soon as the doctors gave permission, Kyryl and his family – his grandmother, mother, wife, daughter, son, and newborn twins – piled into a small SUV. Three days later, they arrived in Poland. Understated as always, Kyryl says, “I have to admit, it was an interesting experience.”

A lawyer and administrator in his home country, Kyryl arrived in America with limited language skills. As an NSC client, he and his family received help with necessary forms to access healthcare, education, and other basic needs. Kyryl specifically credits Romana Gordynsky, Manager of the Newcomer Support Program, with helping his family during those early days. “She was like a friend to me,” he says.

As Kyryl and his family got settled, he saw the needs of so many surrounding him. So, he did what Romana did. He started helping. He turned to other NSC clients and began to assist them in doing the things he had already completed. With his English improving each day, Romana started to encourage him to apply for a job.

As part of NSC’s Newcomer Support Program – previously the Ukrainian Support Program – Kyryl got to assist people in addressing their immediate needs upon arrival in America. “I love NSC, because the results of our work are immediate and impactful.” He respects that the team does whatever necessary to support the families they serve. The hardest part: “There are so many people to serve, and we can’t support them all.”

That led Kyryl to his current position at NSC. In his new finance role, Kyryl gets to contribute to making more efficient systems – systems that allow NSC to serve as many clients as possible. But, this likely isn’t Kyryl’s last stop either. He knows that he loves learning new things, and this man with two graduate degrees can absolutely imagine returning to school again one day. With his wife, a restaurant manager, Kyryl and his family are establishing roots here in Philadelphia:

My family adapted to life in America quite quickly. My younger daughters almost don’t remember life in Ukraine; for them, everything here is normal. My son remembers our life before the war, and sometimes we discuss it, but I try not to go into too much detail yet. We’ve decided that the loud explosions he heard in Ukraine were actually the footsteps of big transformers that came to befriend us, and this theory satisfies both of us for now. My older daughter also remembers Ukraine, but she has adapted well to school here.

Asked if it’s strange that his twin daughters don’t remember Ukraine, he answers hopefully: “One day, they will see Ukraine again.”