CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — With troubling conflict between Ukraine and Russia, it's understandable for residents to want to help Ukrainian refugees fleeing their country.
Oleksandr Zhalkovskiy lives in Corpus Christi, but the pain of being so far away from his family in Ukraine is unbearable.
He spoke with his mother just Tuesday morning.
"They're keeping their spirits up to how to go to... there was a siren," Zhalkovskiy said. "Only about three times today. So today is a relatively peace for for a war time."
The sirens Zhalkovskiy refers to are the ones to alert citizens of when to take shelter due to a possible threat from the sky.
"I cannot imagine going through that multiple times a day, there was a few days when they had to do that up to up to like twelve times," Zhalkovskiy said.
Katie Galan with the Better Business Bureau of the Coastal Bend knows when situations such as Zhalkovskiy's arise, people want to put their donations into the hands of those who need it immediately.
"This is a, you know, a war torn country at the moment," Galan said. "They don't have postal service, they don't have reliable transportation to get in and out of the country. So you really do need to work with an organization who already has boots on the ground in that area."
Residents are encouraged to give to organizations such as the Red Cross and see how they're helping. It includes distributing food, water, and hygiene parcels to families in need.
"So Red Cross is definitely a great one. We do have an arm of Better Business Bureau. It's called BBB wise giving Alliance," Galan said. "And this is an area where you can go and you can research all sorts of charities, and they we have charities that are accredited by BBB."
Zhalkovskiy wants people to know there are ways to lend a hand.
"If you care about people, then that's exactly why but of course, it affects personal and people here locally. And we see that at the gas pumps," Zhalkovskiy said.
At the end of the day Zhalkovskiy wants one thing.
"I just want the war to stop," Zhalkovskiy said. "I want my friends some of my family to to come home even though some of them don't have a home."
Here are resources you can use to donate:
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