A Ukrainian Naperville resident and a local nonprofit have continued their efforts in supporting Ukraine.
NCTV17 first spoke with Blue/Yellow USA board president Ausra Tallat-Kelpsa Di Raimondo in February, during the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since then, she has taken several trips to the country, with the most recent in June.
“What we do is we bring in all types of non-lethal aid, and we provide it to everyone who needs it,” said Tallat-Kelpsa Di Raimondo.
Supplies that Blue/Yellow USA provides include medical equipment, humanitarian aid, and other requested resources.
“So if you’re defending Ukraine in whatever way you’re doing it, even if you have a soup kitchen and you’re feeding refugees, we’ll help you,” said Tallat-Kelpsa Di Raimondo.
Boxes of supplies provided by Blue/Yellow USA
Recent trip to Ukraine
On this past trip, Tallat-Kelpsa Di Raimondo traveled from Krakow, Poland, to the Ukrainian border before being dropped off in Lviv.
“Lviv is a very beautiful city. It has fabulous cafes and so on, and despite it getting bombed, people just pick themselves up and just keep on going,” said Tallat-Kelpsa Di Raimondo.
From there, the group headed to Kyiv to deliver aid, then southeast toward Zaporizhzhia before returning to Kyiv.
“When I go, every time, we do at least 3,500 kilometers that we drive to distribute and to meet with people and so on. So I get to see a big part of the country and the destruction, as well as the resilience that Ukrainians have, just trying to live as normal a life as possible,” said Tallat-Kelpsa Di Raimondo.
Tallat-Kelpsa Di Raimondo says there’s not much improvement in morale
She says morale has not improved much since February.
“They’re actually more worried. Things changed after the election, and there was an enormous amount of uncertainty, which there still is about support and assistance,” said Tallat-Kelpsa Di Raimondo. “There are even more needs now because they’re bombing more. For example, they’re at three times what they were doing in December.”
Blue/Yellow USA has seen a decline in donations over the past few years, which she attributed to the ongoing nature of the conflict. Still, Tallat-Kelpsa Di Raimondo assured that the group remains strong and committed to supporting Ukraine until the end.
“If they won’t give up, then we’re not going to give up helping them,” said Tallat-Kelpsa Di Raimondo.
Medical supplies provided by Blue/Yellow USA
Photo courtesy: Ausra Tallat-Kelpsa Di Raimondo
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