Adirondack Welcome Circle

In December 2021, the Adirondack Welcome Circle formed to prepare a home for Afghan refugees. Many of you donated to this effort, and our group worked hard to find resources that the family would need as well as to help rehabilitate an apartment for them. We were thrilled by the community support for this effort.

Sponsor Circles is the organization responsible for resettling the Afghan refugees who were evacuated from Afghanistan last August. Afghan families are given the option of where they wanted to resettle. Most choose areas where there are already other Afghan refugees, and where services such as mosques, halal grocery stores, and people speaking their native language have already settled. Sadly, after months of waiting, our community has not been chosen.

In March the war in Ukraine resulted in a flood of refugees escaping the fighting. As of now, about 8 million of them are displaced outside Ukraine. President Biden offered to resettle 100,000 refugees in the US through Sponsor Circles, and we were just informed that a Ukrainian family will be sent to resettle here with us. We are excited to welcome them here, and we know our community will help to make them feel welcome as well. The support required for Ukrainians is somewhat different than that for Afghans. For instance, we are required to be prepared to support them for up to 2 years if they choose to stay that long and still need financial support.

For those of you who donated to the Adirondack Welcome Circle because you felt you wanted to support Afghan refugees, we fully understand your disappointment. Any of you who made a monetary donation would prefer a refund so that you can re-donate the funds to support Afghans in some other way, please contact us at [email protected] and we will arrange that. Otherwise, know that all donations will be put to very good use to support this family, who are escaping from such difficult circumstances.

We would like to thank everyone who has been involved in this effort. So many of you donated money, offered household items, purchased needed supplies from our Target registry, and an amazing number of people showed up at the apartment and scraped, painted, fixed things, cleaned and just helped. All this reinforces why Glens Falls and the surrounding communities are called Hometown USA! No matter what happens in the future for this family, their welcome here and the warmth of this community will be a loving support for them as they face an uncertain future for their native country.

Thank you again for being the loving community that you are and for welcoming the stranger—and making them a friend.

-Kathleen Braico

Adirondack_ Welcome Circle is currently sponsoring a Ukrainian family in the Glens Falls area (see below). As of right now, our group is not in a position to sponsor or support other refugees. If you are looking for sponsorship as a refugee, we wish you the best of luck and we suggest you contact one of the following groups:

Dear Glens Falls friends and neighbors,

Please, accept our deepest thanks for all fruitful cooperation. We are so happy to be part of your society!

We wish all volunteers and their families good health, well-being and peace and harmony in your homes. May success accompany you in all your affairs, and faith in a better future adds strength and inspires great prospects.

God bless you for your faith and reaching out to others!

Especially yours,

Liudmyla, Nastya, Liza Kazberuk

Update 1/5/23

The Kazberuks have returned. We are so glad they are in a safe place.

Update 12/23/22

Return of the Kazberuks

We want you to all be aware of the good news: The Kazberuks will be returning to the US just at the turn of the New Year!

As I’m sure you all know, they returned to Ukraine early in December because of the death in action of Luda’s husband (who is also Nastya’s father and Liza’s grandfather). It was a terrible time for them, and the return flight had to be arranged very quickly. Fortunately, the day that they left, due to the hard work of the team and good luck in timing, they were able to receive the papers necessary to allow them to return to the US under the same “United for Ukraine” program that brought them here to begin with.

We have had only limited contact with them while they have been in Kiev. This is due mostly to the lack of infrastructure–no electricity, no power, no water and frequent bombing. We are so happy that they were not injured or killed under these terrible circumstances. They attended Alexie’s funeral and were able to be in contact with friends and loved ones there. I’m sure that was a great support to them at such a difficult time.

They will spend a cold Christmas there, as President Zelensky said “in candlelight not because it is romantic but because there is no power”.

If any of you want to send them condolence cards, you may send them to the AWC address: PO Box 132, Glens Falls, NY 12801. Please put
“Kazberuk Family” on the address and mark those cards “personal” as we also receive donations at that address.

Blessings of the season to all of you at this time, and please keep our Ukrainian family and everyone suffering in this war in mind as you celebrate the holidays.

Kathy Braico

Adirondack Welcome Circle

Important Update 12/9/22

To the Glens Falls Community

In late July, we welcomed three Ukrainian women, the Kazberuks, to Glens Falls. Their decision to leave home must have been so hard. They also wrenched themselves away from their two menfolk, both of whom have been fighting in Ukraine’s eastern front, fighting for Ukraine’s freedom and fighting for democracy in the world.

On December 3, they learned the terrible news that Andrei, husband to Liudmilla, father to Anastasia and grandfather to Yelyzaveta, was killed in action in the service of his country.

As of this writing, the three women have flown to Warsaw and have driven to Kiev. Although they are in occasional communication with us, we don’t yet know their plans for the immediate future, nor do we know when or where a funeral will happen.

We were able to secure permission from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services for their re-entry into the US, after a difficult and dramatic effort. However, we have no good idea of when they may be able to come back to Glens Falls. Imagining the difficulties of living in the Ukrainian winter while there has been such damage to the infrastructure from Russian bombs, we sure are hoping they will be able to return to us by Christmas. We would so love to comfort them by our home fires on that day.

We will post news of how they are doing here, and on our Facebook page.

If you would like to help us with the unexpected costs of this crisis, we would welcome that. You may use the “Donate” button at the top of this webpage, or you may write a check to the Adirondack Welcome Circle and send it to P.O. Box 132, Glens Falls, NY, 12801.

In the meantime, please join us in sending your deepest condolences by email to: [email protected]com

Send them as well the gifts of love from us all. And assurances that our homes have become theirs. We will most gladly forward your messages.

Many thanks.

Richard Leach

The Adirondack Welcome Circle

Update 11/15/22

Dear Friends,

Luda, Nastya and Liza have now been here for three months. They have proven themselves to be remarkably strong survivors. After enduring the difficult journey here, they are settling into our community remarkably well. They are learning and improving their English. Liza is attending school and making young friends. They have taken the opportunity to travel in our area and learn more about us and how we live. All this despite having to cope with some of our strange-to-them ways, and despite how much they miss their homes, and despite the darkness of the daily news from Ukraine.

You probably know that their menfolk work on the front lines in constant peril as the war grinds on. Beyond just plain missing them, these women must fear what might be happening over there each moment of the day. It helps that they are able to be in touch by cellphone. Still, how they are able to deal with the anxieties of their separation on top of the loss of their homes and translocation into a new culture with such courage and dignity – well, it is a wonderment.

There is, it should be loudly said, something else that has helped to give them strength, and helped tremendously: so much has been done by so many of you to provide them comfort in their very difficult time. From hours of volunteer work on their home, hours of driving them on errands and hours standing in line with them so they can acquire the right credentials; from dollar donations to kitchen and housewares, herbs, flowers, clothing and shoes; from meals to laughter to listening as they share their fears, and to genuine friendship – you have given it all. The Adirondack Welcome Circle is reaching out to you with this letter to say many, many thanks. We hope you all feel proud of what you have provided to Luda, Nastya and Liza in that most important spirit of doing for others what we hope we will also be offered in our times of need. And we are proud of you.

With gratitude and kindest regards,

Richard Leach, for the AWC

November 8, 2022

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