How One Man is Helping Bring
Heat and Light to Ukrainians
Aristotle once said, “It is in our darkest moments when we must focus to see the light.”
Over the last ten months of war in Ukraine, there have been many dark days. But it is in times of darkness that we can most clearly see the light of human kindness.
One person that is helping to shine a light in Ukraine is Jon Kolasinski.
Jon is an American businessman living in Warsaw, Poland where he works for the IT company Markit, a company that lists “kindness” as one of its core values. Like millions of others, Jon was horrified by the invasion and knew he wanted to do something to help the people of Ukraine. As Jon began researching what he could do to help, a friend told him about the organization Kidsave. Although Kidsave is primarily a child welfare organization, once the war began, our team in Ukraine began conducting rescue and evacuation missions and delivering humanitarian aid to those in need. In the beginning, there were only a few Kidsave staff members and their friends and families doing the work, but this effort quickly grew into a team of nearly 300 volunteers, known as Kidsave’s Angels of Hope. Jon was able to connect with Kidsave volunteer, Christopher Freisinger, in Poland, and Jon soon became an invaluable supporter.
When asked about Jon, Christopher said, “Jon has been a tremendous help to us and an absolute pleasure to work with. He’s purchased groceries for us and put our drivers up in hotels. And when Olena needed clothes and shoes for the orphans Kidsave is caring for in the mountains, Jon worked with his company to have them source and purchase what they needed.”
In addition to these charitable acts, Jon also worked with Chris to begin developing a plan to provide for the people of Ukraine through the winter. Because of the constant bombing and missile strikes by Russian forces, Ukraine’s power grid has sustained critical damage. Much of the nation is without power and heat for days at a time—if they regain power at all. Being forced to live in darkness takes a huge toll on a person mentally, and as the first snowflakes begin to fall on Ukraine, the lack of heat becomes the real concern
To help provide heat and light to the people of Ukraine, Jon and his company Markit have been providing generators which Kidsave’s Angels of Hope deliver to the people. To date, Markit has provided over 45 generators and more than $20,000 in support of Kidsave Ukraine.
When asked about his decision to support Ukraine though Kidsave, Jon said, “I was able to meet a number of people from Kidsave who were working on the ground in Ukraine, and I was moved by their level of dedication, hard work, and ability to help people in need.”
Thanks to supporters like Jon and Markit, Kidsave’s Angels of Hope have been able to work tirelessly over the last ten months to rescue and evacuate nearly 30,000 people from combat areas and deliver over 800 tons of humanitarian aid. But there is still much work to be done.
“There was a flood of help in the beginning,” said Jon, but support has slowed since the conflict in Ukraine has left headlines in the U.S. Jon’s support has been unwavering, and he, along with Kidsave’s dedicated volunteers, continue to work to ensure the people of Ukraine will survive this winter.
