A nonprofit is appealing for San Diegans to help adopt a Ukrainian refugee family.
“When I looked at them I saw despair. I saw pain … Their stories brought tears to my eyes,” said Viktoriya Banasevych.
For weeks, the Tierrasanta resident and native Ukrainian were in San Ysidro with her husband and a group of volunteers from the nonprofit Nova Ukraine, assisting the refugees after they crossed the border.
She says before the new federal visa system for Ukrainians moved online and halted crossings at the border, more than 15,000 Ukrainians crossed into San Diego, and about a thousand remain in the area. Some are without connections in the US.