As the war on Ukraine continues, people all over the world continue to help refugees in different ways. Even right here in Michigan.
“Our firm was contacted, initially regarding Ukraine, about two weeks before the invasion occurred,” said Steve Hernandez, CEO of The North Group. “To evacuate people, if conflict did break out.”
The North Group is a Detroit-based global risk management firm that implants a holistic approach to innovative security solutions.
“It was super humbling. This morning at 2 a.m., I got a picture from one of our guys with a 22-year-old Ukrainian girl that we’ve been working on getting out for about five days,” said Hernandez.
The North Group has a team of intelligence analysts monitoring Ukraine.
“The writing obviously was on the wall,” said Hernandez. “Very quickly, we started to see, ‘ok wait, this is actually a big deal.’”
Christie Johnson is a humanitarian aid from the Seattle area. She’s been working first-hand with Ukrainian refugees for the past week, as they cross the border into Poland.
“It is freezing cold here right now,” she said. “It is winter, upon winter, upon winter. It is cold, and there’s just tiny children coming across the border, toddling along behind their moms, trying to keep up.”
Along with the elderly, Johnson said she’s witnessed thousands of mothers cross the border with their children. As the men stay back to fight.
Johnson is in Medyka, a village in Poland that sits right on the border of Ukraine.
“The one thing that really just struck me, is just how strong these woman are, and how strong these children are… to just kind of solider on, when they’re really uncertain about what their future holds,” she said.
© 2023 - 910 Media Group
