The founders of the Kolya Project have helped relocate war refugees from Ukraine to Kent since the war between Russia and Ukraine escalated in 2022. 

Becky Gibson met Kolya Koretskyy when her and her husband helped sponsor him to enter the seminary in Ukraine. Gibson wondered if there was a way to save his family from living in a warzone, and together Gibson and Ben Wolf partnered together to co-found the Kolya Project. 

Gibson stated their goal for the project is to help war refugees be as self-sufficient and independent as possible. 

“We are not looking for someone to take care of them for the two-year sponsorship. We are looking for sponsors who can advocate for them, encourage them, be a cheerleader for them to get on their own two feet and start their lives,” she said.

The Koretskyy family was once behind Russian occupation in Ukraine, and Wolf organized rescue missions to ensure the family could leave Ukraine safely. After leaving Ukraine, the family made it to Denmark, then after finding sponsors, relocated to Kent to begin life again. 

Wolf said they chose Kent as the relocation site for this project for several reasons.

“We know Kent very well and have a large coalition of organizations, churches, financial groups and banks that have agreed to help, including Habitat for Humanity and the ReStore,” Wolf said. “We think that Kent is a really beautiful, welcoming community that has opened their arms to international students.” 

The procedure for the placement of refugees includes potential families going through a vetting procedure, examining how successful they can be in America and their level of English, Wolf said. The waiting process continues to get longer as families wait for sponsors to help, though they ensure to do this safely, legally and ethically through a Department of Homeland Security program called Uniting for Ukraine.

“Sponsors and donors are hard to get, so the hardest thing for me is having the desire to help more and the difficulty of being able to do so,” Gibson said. “They are looking for safety and peace, and we can offer them that by bringing them over here.”

In addition to the Koretskyy family, they have also helped place a young couple living in Hudson. Another couple that has just been accepted is being brought to Kent, and they are now searching for a house and transportation. One additional family has recently applied to come over from Ukraine. 

“Humanitarian organizations are there to provide normalcy in a very tumultuous time,” Wolf said. “Many of the people that we help have lost everything. They have lost their homes, their family members, they have lost all of their possessions and they arrive with a backpack.” 

In the future, Gibson and Wolf hope to achieve a partnership with Kent State in order to spread their reach wider and help place more families. 

“We just want to keep going. We love what we have done, we love helping the people, we love working with Kent, but we are always willing to do more. There’s no limit to how many we can handle, as long as we get sponsors and donations, we can really help a lot of people,” Gibson said. “We are here to stay, we are here to help people. It’s incredibly important to Ben and me, and I think that that’s what we are doing.”

Lindsay Collier is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected]