"We should not forget about the war in Ukraine. We should not forget about it. Innocent people, innocent children who are still there," said Anna Kobylarz of the Polish-American Foundation of Connecticut.
Kobylarz lives in Berlin, but her heart is in Ukraine. She just returned from her 12th trip since the country's war with Russia began.
“When I come, I have tears in my eyes and when I leave, my heart is like broken because I have to leave," Kobylarz said.
We've been following her journey for over a year. She's a Poland native who is on a mission to help hundreds of children in the City of Goodness - a shelter and orphanage that has only grown during the war.
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Many of the children there and sick, and some are in hospice.
"I travel to Poland. From Poland, I take a car and I drive 12 hours, maybe 13 hours sometimes, and the car is full," Kobylarz said. "I will bring whatever is needed. Generators, fire trucks, funds to build a bomb shelter, whatever I can. Medication."
She recently helped open a medical center at the orphanage.
“We were talking about it since last year, to have open, and it just happened during the wartime. So it's like an amazing, amazing feeling. And I know how important is, this place to have this children," Kobylarz said.
Relying on generosity of donors, Kobylarz is now focusing her efforts on 10-year-old Mariczka. She's under the care of the City of Goodness while she battles terminal cancer.
“She cannot talk anymore, so it's heartbreaking seeing her in this condition. This mission is not easy. Seeing her and very ill children is not easy. But there is something we can do," she said.
Kobylarz started a campaign, asking kids across Connecticut and the world to draw pictures of butterflies for Mariczka. Symbols of hope for her and every other child living in the shadow of the war in Ukraine.
"So she can look at it and she can see beautiful butterflies, and her favorite color is blue," Kobylarz said.
She said the butterflies have already started to come in. They're being added to Mariczka's hospice room.
If you'd like to help brighten her days, click here for more information.
