MENTOR, Ohio — New Horizons for Children is an international orphan care and hosting program that partners with orphanages around the world, including Ukraine, to help children and teens in need.

Ohioan and News Horizons for Children executive director Dr. Sherri McClurg, has helped orphaned Ukrainians for years. 

“We’ve been [in Ukraine] since 2009,” McClurg said. “I am over there at least twice a year, doing what we can to support our orphanages.” 

Since Russia’s invasion, McClurg has seen some of Ukraine’s most vulnerable victims first hand.

“Our primary thing is that we are working with Aerial Recovery and the Lviv regional authorities to be able to evacuate children from the eastern side of Ukraine, anywhere where there is shelling, not all regions need to evacuate but those on the east, for sure,” she said. “To bring them over to the west where it’s safe, where there is no shelling, where their little hearts can calm down.” 

The Ukrainian government is working to avoid taking the children out of the country, according to McClurg. 

“Ukraine wants the children to not have to go across the border and becoming a part of another country, with another language, another culture,” she said. “Because that is another trauma.” 

So far, New Horizons for Children helped more than 1,000 children get to safety. 

“We had one group [of orphaned children] that literally spent eight or nine days in a bunker and they had gone down during the night and when these kids are coming to us, they are coming in their pajamas,” she said. “They are so scared, so overwhelmed, so traumatized.” 

Being a clinical psychologist, McClurg can help the children process the trauma they experienced. 

“The first groups that came weeks ago are just starting to even feel safe enough to even start to talk about what they saw or what they heard,” she said. “It takes weeks for that to start to feel safe and be able to calm down.” 

New Horizons for Children accepts donations for operation on its website.