How We Can Help Evacuate Disabled Ukrainians to Safety

The California-based non-profit Joni & Friends International Disability Center is helping stranded Ukrainians with disabilities cross the border into Poland and other neighboring countries. They are helping those who have great physical difficulty with moving far distances on their own.

Galyna, the Joni & Friends coordinator in Ukraine, reported on the horrors facing innocent civilians caught in the center of the war: “Russian troops use kids, they use pregnant women, they use sick people or hospitals for sick children as targets for missiles. That’s terrible. And we do not want the Russian soldiers to manipulate with the people with disabilities, or to use them as shields so that our Ukrainian soldiers will not be able to protect themselves, and to defend our country.”

To protect the disabled people of Ukraine, Joni & Friends recognized that it would need to mobilize and evacuate them from cities that have been transformed into battlefields.

As of Friday, the non-profit has helped evacuate the first wave of 35 people, including 15 with disabilities including cerebral palsy and Ukrainians who use wheelchairs for their mobility.

Earlier this week, TravelAbility donated $1,000 in the name of our new foundation. To learn more about the group’s work, or to donate to their cause, visit the Joni & Friends website.