Dan Parks is a member of the Wilmington East Rotary Club. With financial support from several Rotary clubs, friends, family, and former colleagues, Parks helped two Ukrainian women, Svetlana and Natallia, and their children move to the U.S. in December 2022. Their husbands had to stay behind to fight in the war, and they’re still fighting. But before their arrival, Parks described calling them in Kyiv to check on them.
“‘Don't you ever get sleep?’ And she said, ‘No, [3 a.m.], that's when the shelling starts. We don't sleep well.’ I was sick, you know, all I wanted to do was get him out of dodge then and get him to safety,” he said.
Parks said this effort was one of the first times Rotary collaborated with another organization, Welcome.US, to support refugees relocated to the U.S.
Fast forward, when Svetlana and Natallia finally came to Wilmington, Parks said, “The first week they were here, and one of them was saying, ‘My six-year-old daughter saw things a child should not see.’”
Those were things like traveling through rubble around the city, and seeing those who were killed left out in the streets.
Either through receiving Temporary Protected Status or Humanitarian Parole through the federal government, those Ukrainians and their sponsors have to work quickly to get them settled.
“You've got 90 days to get them up on their feet, get them in an apartment, get them English classes, and get them jobs. And then you kind of nurture them after that,” he said.
Parks said he receives support from Church World Services Wilmington, but pointed out that the organization’s staff has been drastically reduced. They had upwards of 30 employees – now it’s down to four because of federal cuts to refugee services programs.
Svetlana, Natallia, and their children are doing well, but they continue to worry about the safety of their husbands. However, earlier this month, they became aware of an email sent from the Department of Homeland Security, revoking their legal status. The department then said they had sent that email in error, but President Trump had already mentioned in March that he might rescind the status of over 280,000 Ukrainians who have resettled in the U.S since the start of the war. He already did so for Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Haitians. However, a federal judge recently stayed this order; lawyers for the administration said they intend to appeal the decision.
“I mean, we've been talking to congressmen, senators, and we're not trying to say anything bad about the present administration, but we just want to say, ‘Hey, listen, we brought these people here legally. And I know humanitarian parole can end on a moment's notice, which it did, but we can't send them back to war zones. Good heavens, these people are working. They've got jobs; they're paying taxes. Some of them have bought homes,” he said.
Parks said now he’s working with the nine Ukrainians living in Wilmington to get a Power of Attorney (POA) to protect their assets just in case Trump goes through with deporting them.
“This is not the conversation you want to have, but you have to have it with your beneficiaries in the event they really do get deported,” he said.
Parks said the news coming out of Ukraine continues to be bleak for the families living in Wilmington. He referenced the Palm Sunday attack, mainly on civilians, where 35 people died.
“Children 13-15 years old are still wetting the bed. They have psychological problems because all they live in is air raids at night,” Parks said.
The families, he said, initially thought there was a chance to go back, but now, “There's nothing for them to go back to. They're trying to figure out ‘How do we get our husbands here?’ You know, there is nothing. There is nothing. It’s scary.”
Parks said he wanted to resettle more families, but he can’t under the new federal policies.
