Opelousas family hosted Ukrainian student. Now, they're part of relief efforts for her country

As Bruce Gaudin watches the events unfold daily in war-ravaged Ukraine, he has undertaken what he describes as personal responsibility for assisting individuals fleeing the country as well as helping those who remain during the conflict.

Gaudin, an Opelousas attorney learned firsthand in correspondence more than two months ago about the plight of evacuees attempting to flee Ukraine as Russia mobilized a northern border invasion force.

Now several weeks after following accounts from news organizations about Russia’s initial attacks and reported Ukraine resistance, Gaudin, a longtime Rotary Club member, is turning to a familiar source for engaging Ukraine financial support.

Gaudin apprised his fellow Opelousas Rotary Club members last week about opportunities to donate monetarily to the recently established Rotary International Disaster Response Fund for Ukraine.

“This situation in Ukraine has become a personal one for me,” Gaudin told the Rotarians during their meeting at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Opelousas.

Gaudin reminded the club members that in 1995, Marina Suponina, then a young girl from Ukraine, spent a year with his family and him as she attended Opelousas Catholic School as a high school international exchange student.

As war between Russia and Ukraine threatened in late February, Gaudin who has corresponded regularly by e-mail with Marina Suponina Calland, a journalist now married and living in London with her husband, learned of her personal experiences amid the flood of evacuees from Ukraine into Poland and other border countries.

Calland’s mother Tatiana, then living in Kyiv, was one of the millions of Ukraine evacuees, fighting to hurriedly board trains in a desperate attempt to leave the country as Russia gave indications of an impending invasion.

Gaudin received frequent updates edited and published in a parish-wide online publication about her own Ukraine rescue effort, as she left London and hurriedly moved across Europe, eventually reaching a border town in Poland, where she and her mother were safely reunited.

Since then Gaudin said Calland and husband Tim , are living with her mother in their London home. Gaudin added that her mother Tatiana has received a three-year visa, enabling her to stay temporarily inside England.

Gaudin said during a Thursday night interview that Calland has been communicating regularly with him during the past few weeks about events evolving inside Ukraine.

“Marina originally lived in Mariupol, where as everyone now knows, has undergone constant bombardment over the past month or so. In 2014 when it was feared the area around Ukraine would be invaded by Russia, Marina and her mother moved to Kyiv, feeling it was safer there,” Gaudin added.

Although he won’t disclose all the details of recent e-mails he has received from Calland, Gaudin said she has written to him about the ongoing devastation occurring inside Mariupol.

“This war is being fought differently than others we have seen in the past. Individuals within war zones are able to communicate by phone to others on the outside. Marina has been able to speak when communication is available with friends and people that she knows inside Mariupol as the war is going on,” Gaudin said.

Gaudin said through the e-mail accounts provided by Calland, she has described through the eyes of the combatants a life in Mariupol, once a city of about 400,000,that has been bombed into rubble, frequent lack of food, water and electricity.

“It’s also difficult to always get information from Mariupol Marina says, since there is always instances when power goes down as you might imagine,” Gaudin said.

Callad, Gaudin said, has also been recently preparing in London as an interviewer for a film documentary.

“Marina is very smart. When she lived in Opelousas, Marina was always popular, always smiling. She loved it here and being in the United States. In order to qualify to become an international student, she had to compete against students all across Ukraine. She did that, beat out the other applicants and won a scholarship here,” Gaudin recalled.

Rotary International Response Fund

Gaudin said Rotary disaster relief for Ukraine is not limited to Rotarians, Gaudin told club members.

“It’s also not a club project or activity. Any club member, church, civic organization or any individual outside Rotary can donate to the disaster Ukraine fund by April 30,” Gaudin pointed out.

Large donations can elevate Rotary personal funding levels for Rotarians as they move through the different phases of their club memberships, said Gaudin.

According to the Rotary International website, the Disaster Response Fund is an official global channel for contributing funds for refugees and victims of the Ukraine crisis. Funding through Rotary International will provide funding for refugees and victims of the Ukraine crisis, including water, food, shelter, medicine and clothing.

Rotary districts bordering Ukraine may apply for relief grants of up to $50,000 from the Response Fund through June 30 to help with the expenses for Ukraine victims.

This article originally appeared on Opelousas Daily World: Opelousas man encourages Rotary Club and community to help Ukraine