Two Minnesota humanitarian aid workers launch an effort to get Ukrainian orphans to safety

In a bomb shelter just outside Lviv, Ukraine — you can hear the panicked cries of children.

An air raid has begun.

“As soon as the sirens go off, the kids start crying, because they know what has to happen,” says Timothy Lambrecht, who’s done two stints as a humanitarian aid worker in Ukraine. “They do not like going into these bomb shelters, it’s like a dungeon in some of these places.”

Lambrecht — a five-year veteran at the Hamel Volunteer Fire Department, shared numerous cell phone captures and video clips from Ukraine with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS.

One of the clips shows a little boy walking outside, the sirens heard faintly in the background.

“Even as an adult, when you hear those sirens, something inside you goes a little bit cold,” says Bogdana Krivogorsky, a molecular biologist from Duluth, who moved from Ukraine with her family in 1992. “If you’re close to the front lines, obviously the sirens and the bombings, a direct threat to your life, will be heard very often. I cannot imagine the long-lasting effect it will have on children.”

Fear is a hated currency in Ukraine.

But the children in the photos are dealing with something else.

They are among the estimated 100,000 orphans living in the war-torn country.

“We can provide them that safe haven, that safe environment at least from the air raids, the air sirens and the bombings,” Krivogorsky explains.

She and Lambrecht say they want to help.

“It’s a simple as saving lives,” he says. “It breaks our hearts to see this, but part of our goal is try to move the children from those areas that could be harmed. There’s also cities that are being bombed right now that we’re trying to help move the kids to safer areas.”

The two joined forces to work as a humanitarian aid team in Ukraine during April, May and June.

Their new mission: launching a nonprofit called ‘Chance 4 Kids.’

Krivogorsky and Lambrecht — with the help of local Ukrainian government officials — and humanitarian groups — have a plan to move sixty orphans, boys and girls, aged 1 to 16-years-old, from Odessa to a safer area in western Ukraine.

They say that’s only the beginning.  

“The war is targeting children and families and everybody — and it’s basically entered a terror kind of zone,” Krivogorsky says. “Unfortunately I can’t stop the bombings, but what I can do is provide them safe housing, I can provide them you know, gain them some sense of normalcy.”

“Sixty kids is just getting started, so this is just something for us to start,” Lambrecht adds. “We fully expect we’ll have to take more children from the eastside, as we move through this and forward with this.”

The two have a crowd-funding goal of $100,000.

They say they’ll have to locate a safe facility, pay rent and utilities, along with acquiring caregivers and other staff.  

“These facilities are something that we’re looking for, that then have to find them and then, renovate them,” Lambrecht notes. “Then we’re also committing to the government and others, that we’ll take care of these Ukrainian children through the war in safer areas.”

The hope is that teachers who’ve worked with the children will want to come along to the new facility.

Lambrecht says a staff of volunteers, including administrators and nurses may also be able to help.

“This is very complex, this isn’t just moving the children and hey, we’re done,” he says. “Getting laptops and stuff like that will be part of our strategy for sure.”

The duo says everything from school supplies, to kitchen equipment, including eating utensils will be needed — and that time is running out, as shelling attacks increase in eastern Ukraine.

“This is not a war, it’s terror, it’s flat-out terror,” Lambrecht says.  

He and Krivogorsky say they hope to invite a high-level executive or U.S. government official willing to see first-hand what conditions are like in Ukraine.   

But for now — their focus is to help get Ukrainian orphans out of harm’s way.

“I just wish with all my heart that I could just be like a mother hen, take them and protect them,” Krivogorsky says. “It’s heartbreaking, but as I said, I might not be able to help and make a difference in the whole country,” Krivogorsky says. “But I can make a difference in the lives of the sixty, and the next sixty, and the next sixty kids.”

You can find out more about ‘Chance 4 Kids’ here.

You can also donate by calling 952-295-0017.