Yaroslav Hnatsuko has spent the last year not only completing his Master of Business Administration at ETSU, but also leading his own humanitarian organization, Restore Ukraine, to help provide relief to his home country.
Originally from Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Hnatsuko moved to Johnson City in fall 2021 to pursue higher education at ETSU. He launched Restore Ukraine in February 2022 at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He currently acts as the co-founder and executive director of the non-profit, along with his brother, Stanislav Hnatusko.
“I realized that choosing ETSU was the right choice, because as soon as I launched the non-profit, I realized how strong the sense of community and family is here. The emphasis on close relationships is like what we have back home in Ukraine, especially in the inner circle of my family,” said Hnatsuko.
It started as a small, private fundraiser, where Hnatsuko asked family and friends to offer their support for the organization. But as the war continued to press on, the needs for the organization only grew.
“We quickly realized that we needed for the organization to grow, because the war did not stop,” Hnatsuko added. “Everybody expected it would last a month or two or three. It never stopped. It has been almost a year now. Unfortunately, the devastation will continue.”
He mentioned that once Restore Ukraine was recognized as a non-profit, they were able to establish credibility and work more internationally.
Just in the year 2022 alone, the organization was able to give out hot meals to over 3,000 people, deliver 600,000 pounds of food in food kits, deliver 4,500 hygiene kits, distribute 1.6 million pounds of building materials for home repair kits and rebuild 40 apartments.
They were also able to shelter 500 people and raise $1.5 million for projects, according to their Instagram.
Hnatusko shared that running the organization comes with its challenges, especially as a full-time student with a seven-hour time difference from his home country. Most days he starts his mornings at 6 a.m. to workout before he starts communicating with his team in Ukraine, which he described as “more than a full-time job by itself.”
The most rewarding feeling for him is the sense of achievement and fulfillment in supporting these communities living through the brutality of war.
“You can see what your work is doing and how much it’s helping, how many people it benefits,” explained Hnatsuko. “The plate is always full, but the ability to actually help people who don’t have a home, who have nowhere to go, who are alone, that is much more important.”
Restore Ukraine is run by a team of about 24 members, Hnatusko noted. This includes full-time, project-based and part-time employees, as well as volunteers.
Most recently, Restore Ukraine shipped two 40-foot containers filled with medical supplies for hospitals with an estimated combined value of $700,000. They also sent another container with winter clothing, comforters and blankets for the colder months.
He explained that many residents continue to take shelter in metro stations, laying on the cold tile and concrete all year long.
“One of the very first times we distributed a large supply of prepared hot meals, we realized that people at the metro station hadn’t had food for three or four days,” he shared. “That was the only place to go. And of course there were children, there were people unprepared for the war, unprepared for the cold, and had to reside [there] for so long.”
He said his decision to be present in the community feels much stronger than before, after becoming more involved at ETSU and in this region.
“With the values that people have here in East Tennessee, they can see that family is a priority. And for so many people in Ukraine, it is too.”
For more information on how to help Restore Ukraine, visit restore-ukraine.org/donate/.
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