PASADENA, Calif. — A Caltech grad student has been collecting donations for his country in crisis.
Roman Korol is having a hard time studying chemistry these days, as his monitor stays on the news.
“There were missile strikes and air bombings in my hometown,” Korol said.
All the women and children in his family have fled to Poland, but his male relatives are still there. He’s been stressed thinking about them.
“I’ve even had ideas of going to Ukraine and flying to Poland and then crossing the border and helping with Ukraine’s defense there,” he said.
But because he became a father two months ago, he has a responsibility to stay. So he’s found another way to help.
He’s been collecting donations from his Caltech community and neighborhood for two weeks. He has boxes filled with donations, including warm clothing items, hygiene products and baby food.
He gets a list of needs from organizations in Ukraine, which will tell him what they need now, in a week or a month later.
He’s piled more than 35 boxes in his car with hundreds of items from his local community, which for him is inspiring.
“For people who are hundreds and thousands of kilometers away actually to take care of other human beings,” he said.
Korol ships the boxes at Meest, a shipment company in Glendale that specializes in sending packages to eastern Europe. Lately, they have been focused on shipping humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Shipping items has helped Korol feel like he’s helping his country, but ultimately he wants Ukraine to go back to sovereignty and independence.
“I would love my people to be able to make decisions for themselves and not be subject to tyrant’s will and to prosper in their freedom and in their democratic institutions,” he said.
Anyone who wants to donate can contact him at Roman@caltech.edu.