On this episode of the Bespoke Parenting Hour, host Julie Gunlock talks to Maria Chaplia, an IWF Fellow and native Ukrainian. Julie and Maria discuss the situation in Ukraine, as well as her own efforts to raise money and provide aid to Ukrainian citizens and soldiers, and how parents and kids are faring in wartime conditions.

To contribute to Maria’s efforts, please click here.


TRANSCRIPT

Julie Gunlock:

Hey everyone. I’m Julie Gunlock, host of The Bespoke Parenting Hour. For those new to the program, this podcast is focused on how parents should custom tailor their parenting style to fit what’s best for their families, themselves, and most importantly, their kids. Today, we have a slightly unusual topic, and that is the situation in Ukraine and how families are coping. It is an ongoing war, and much of Ukraine has been invaded by the Russians. There is tremendous violence throughout that section of the Ukraine, but there is really a whole lot of Ukraine that has not been invaded. What is life like there? Can kids behave in a normal way? Are they going to school? And what kind of charities are still operating there? So today, we’re going to be talking to Maria Chaplia. Maria is actually a colleague of mine. She’s a fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum, and she’s also a research manager at the Consumer Choice Center, which is an organization that really focuses on regulations and consumer issues.

She mainly works in the field of trade, lifestyle regulations, and platform economy. Her research and writing have been featured in major European titles, such as the Daily Mail, The Independent, Financial Times, and Parliament Magazine. Maria is actually joining us from the UK, where she is a trained lawyer and economist. She completed several management programs and communication internships with Students for Liberty in Washington, D.C. And again, she is a fellow with us at IWF, focusing also on consumer issues. But lately, Maria has been focusing on the Ukraine. Maria is Ukrainian, so that is her focus. She’s been keeping people aware of updates on Twitter and has participated in some IW events. So, Maria, thank you so much for joining me today.

Maria Chaplia:

Thank you very much, Julie. It’s lovely to be here.

Julie Gunlock:

Maria, I do want to talk to you about your Townhall piece that was recently published, and some of the agricultural issues, really problems, over in Europe. But I first want to talk to you, you just got back from Ukraine, isn’t that correct?

Maria Chaplia:

Yes, I did. Just a few days ago.

Julie Gunlock:

Well, can you give us an update on the situation there? Goodness, how long is this podcast? I know it’s hard to summarize what’s going on. But if you could just tell us where you were and what you saw, and the latest on the war with Russia.

Maria Chaplia:

Sure. I’m Ukrainian, and I come from Lviv region, so it’s in the far west of Ukraine. I would live in Kiev if it wasn’t because of the war, which started on the 21st of February. The situation in Ukraine, especially the mood around Ukrainians is quite grim because of some recent victories that Russia had in the east, as well as the fact that Russia is preventing Ukrainian grain from leaving the country and feeding the world. Probably the listeners know, Ukraine is one of the biggest grain supplies in the world, and as a result of Russia’s actions, the Black Sea is now blocked so there is no way for the grain to leave. And as a result, many countries in Africa in particular, who are heavily dependent on Ukraine’s agricultural exports, are suffering and now on the brink of hunger, as well as Ukrainians inside.

My piece in Townhall was about Holodomor, which was a starvation program orchestrated by the USSR in Ukraine, which essentially killed millions of people because Russians were just stealing Ukrainian grain, taking it to Moscow, and then punishing farmers who didn’t want to comply. And that’s what’s happening in Ukraine. And on top of that, there is also great deficits of the various products. So what we see now is that healthcare supplies are running really low. You can see that some drugs are not available. Various self-care products are not available, including shampoos in some shops, which is essentially what I’ve seen in shops where I went to, as well as some agricultural products are not also available.

And it all coincided with the fact that the West is not really supplying any more weapons as it was promised, and all these things just pile up. They’ve orchestrated [inaudible 00:05:18] and blockage of the Black Sea as a result of lots of pressure in Ukraine to come to terms with some peace plan or something that’s not going to work for Ukraine. So all of these things just pile up and Ukrainians are feeling very, very depressed and very betrayed by the West and feeling very, very alone with their personal tragedy, which is actually a tragedy that’s been going on for the whole history of Ukraine.

Julie Gunlock:

So I stumbled earlier over the word Holodomor. I’m so embarrassed. Holodomor, can you say that word for me?

Maria Chaplia:

Yeah. It’s Holodomor.

Julie Gunlock:

Holodomor. And that is a name for basically the starvation that they have and it’s the sort of historical man-made, really Russia-orchestrated starvation that they experienced, again, at the hands of the Russians, and we’re seeing this again. So this is an incredible humanitarian crisis. And as Maria really points out — and Maria, I really think this is important — there is a situation in East Africa right now. There is a terrible drought, which is leading to a situation there in East Africa, and many East African countries received the grain from Ukraine, which is now not allowed to leave because the Russians have essentially taken it. So it is a worldwide problem, not just affecting the people of Ukraine, which should be enough for the West to certainly wake up and help.

But it is a worldwide problem. It has tremendous tentacles that are stretching all over the world. So I think your piece is really important. I hope people…. We’ll put a link to your article over at Townhall in this podcast. I want to pivot over to talk about sort of the conditions that you saw in Ukraine. You mentioned shortages, but I think about the disruptions that COVID created here in the U.S. and around the world, obviously, with closed schools and just societal disruptions. What is it like in the Ukraine right now for children and for parents who must be in a state of constant panic and worry, and is there sort of normal life, or has that all come to a halt?

Maria Chaplia:

So it depends which parts of Ukraine we’re talking about. In the far east, obviously, many schools have now been destroyed by Russians. So obviously, there is no chance for those kids in terms of safety or infrastructure; they have no way to go back, as well as like civilian homes and houses have also been destroyed. Many people from the east who moved to the west of Ukraine, you can say that in some cities where my parents live, life is kind of going back as normal. It’s not really normal because everyone’s doing something to help the army. In the early days of the war, kids were asked to go to schools and instead of learning, they were asked to help with various humanitarian supplies, they were asked to help collect some shoes, toys, all of those things that were later sent to, or given to people who moved from the east of Ukraine.

So schools in west Ukraine have been trying to integrate this war effort into their schooling activities, which I think has been quite amazing. It keeps pupils and students and parents united around the same age. But many Ukrainian kids and parents have now moved to many countries in the European Union where they, obviously, from what I’m seeing, many of them go to school straight away. So it can be the case where you’ve just moved to Germany a few days ago, and next week you’re sending your kid to school. EU countries have simplified it so it’s quite easy for Ukrainian kids to move there and go to school.

Julie Gunlock:

Have you been seeing any… I mean, I guess the question is, are families able to stay together, or have you seen a lot of children being sent somewhere by parents? I know that men in Ukraine have to fight. So are children…. What’s sort of the condition of children in terms of, is there a large group of children that maybe can’t find their parents, or their parents have died? I don’t know if there’s any stats on that, but what does it look like there?

Maria Chaplia:

So normally kids travel with their mothers if they move to west in Ukraine or go somewhere west in Europe. But there’s been obviously cases of both parents died and kids being orphans for life. There was this story in the early days of the war where this kid who was 10 years old, walked himself from Kiev to Poland, so that was probably 700 kilometers at least. And he walked on his own because his parents, he either couldn’t find them or something. I don’t really know the stats for that, but there seems…. So the worry is we don’t really know what’s happening on the occupied territories. I mean, we know something, but we don’t know how many kids are now orphans.

But one thing that’s been quite striking and showing in terms of Russian invasion is they are sending Ukrainian kids to Russia. I think the number would be somewhere 100,000 Ukrainian kids who have now been sent to Russia, and Russia has simplified the adoption procedure so that those kids can be adopted by Russian families. And as a result, they would never speak Ukrainian, they would never know they’re Ukrainian, and they were forcefully taken from their parents in many cases because Russia has those filtration camps which you have to pass if you want to escape an occupied territory and many kids, as well as many parents, don’t really make it past those. So it’s quite terrifying what’s happening there.

Julie Gunlock:

Oh, that’s so awful. Now, I know that you and your boyfriend, Alexandra Hammond, who also works in this sort of regulatory world with us, you’ve set up a charity. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Maria Chaplia:

Yes. We set up, it’s more like a fundraiser where we are trying to collect money, which we…. Well, initially we started to help refugees who were traveling to Poland to pay for their accommodation, to pay for their transportation from the Polish border to any place which was safe in Poland where they could stay. And then as time passed by, we realized that there was…. So the needs of refugees were more or less covered by various platforms, various NGOs, which all have emerged within a few weeks after the full-scale war began. So we started raising more money, but now we are raising more for military aid. My dad who’s in Ukraine is helping quite a few people, at least 20 soldiers in terms of supplying them with uniforms, medical supply kits, tourniquets, all of those things that are really needed when you’re on the frontline, as well as fixing their cars.

And then we also are in charge with one group who used to be Kiev, but they’ve now moved to somewhere in the East, who we are also helping. So a few days ago when we were in Ukraine, we had this, not necessarily a funny accident, but we had to carry all of the military uniforms which we bought. We had to walk across the border because the government regulation on the Ukrainian side wouldn’t let us travel by car into Ukraine. So we carried all of those heavy bags and boxes across the border just so we can give it to the military [inaudible 00:13:58] who really need them.

Julie Gunlock:

Well, oh gosh, that is truly, truly working hard. I saw the pictures on Twitter, and those were very, very large boxes. So I admire you guys for all the work that you’re doing. I think in the beginning, weren’t you also helping to find housing for Ukrainians? I know you were working in Poland for a while, and you were trying to find shelter, essentially, and housing for Ukrainian families who had made it over to Poland. Is that something you’re still helping with, and how are those families?

Maria Chaplia:

[inaudible 00:14:41]. Well, many Ukrainians really want to go back to Ukraine. So it’s quite tricky to help people who are refugees because Ukrainians are not really refugees; they are more like very temporarily dispersed people. So no, we are still doing that on the side depending on where the needs arises, but normally all of the families that we’ve helped, many of them ask to pay for their accommodation for a few weeks. So I imagine many of them now have gone back to Ukraine and live in Ukraine because the separation of families is very, very painful and women and kids just can’t do without their granddads, without their dads, obviously. So it’s quite painful, and not many Ukrainians choose to stay in Poland or anywhere else in Europe.

Julie Gunlock:

When you were there watching, though, at the early days — and yes, they’re temporarily in Poland — but what did you observe in terms of the mothers trying to at least comfort their children, or what would they say to their children? What were some of the things that the children would do or the parents would do to distract their children or make their children feel safe?

Maria Chaplia:

That’s a very difficult question to answer when you’re not a psychologist. In the early days of war, Ukrainian doctors were releasing guides, or more like psychologists were releasing guides on how to talk to kids about war because obviously kids, especially teenagers were all quite shocked and so it was difficult to get to them. So I think in many ways, what was helping in some say funny ways, there was this story of a kid who was four years old, I think, and who made it together with his mom to the Polish side after crossing the Ukrainian border. And this kid was crying really hard, and there was this humanitarian group helping people around, making sure they have transportation and everything. And the kid was desperate, he was crying. And then one of the volunteers from the humanitarian group comes to the kid, he’s like, how can I help you?

And the kid is like, “Oh, I would really love this. I don’t know, [inaudible 00:16:48] or something.” And they brought him this toy and the kid was like, “Oh my gosh, this just made me feel better.” So the kid calmed down. But many Ukrainian kids are struggling with psychological problems. I was helping a family from Mariupol who spent probably like two months in shelters, and the child was, I think, nine years old or something. And this boy had mood swings. So in an hour, he would go from feeling very happy to feeling like extremely devastated and depressed. So one of the ways to help those kids is for Ukrainian families to seek help in European countries whenever they move. I know many are getting psychologist appointments after moving to European countries because parents just can’t really cope with these mood swings. And for mothers, it’s extremely difficult as well because they’re traumatized themselves and —

Julie Gunlock:

Yes, and —

Maria Chaplia:

— they have a child who’s also traumatized.

Julie Gunlock:

And of course, these mothers, many of them are by themselves. Their husbands are — they’re worried about their husbands and their fathers. And they’re doing this parenting in war time by themselves. So it’s a really dreadful situation for these mothers as well. One tweet that I noticed is the idea that maybe some of the donations and maybe some of the interest in this issue is dying off, which is very upsetting to me because this is a grave situation that really needs to have the world’s eyes on it continuously. Are you experiencing that with your organization? I know you’re still fundraising. Are you experiencing that sort of drop-off with your org?

Maria Chaplia:

Yes, we are. Unfortunately, it does seem like the interest in the Ukrainian war is fading and it’s getting more and more difficult to raise money for the war in Ukraine. Also, because the mainstream media is not really reporting it as much as it used to be, which is obviously playing to the benefits of Russia because Europe is part of the Ukrainian war, then U.S. media is also bored of it, so now we can do all the worst things that we couldn’t really do because there was pressure coming from governments, from media, from everywhere.

So it’s getting quite difficult on this front as well. But Ukrainians themselves are donating the last money that they have. And there was this case in, for example, Lithuania where, a few days ago, Lithuanians fundraised 1 million euros just to buy like weapons, and that’s helping Ukrainians a lot, as well as Ukrainians are donating, you can donate something like, I don’t know, $5, some Ukrainians do that. And because everyone is so united, you can get like a million or something a bit short of that within a few hours sometimes. So all the Ukrainians are giving the last money that they have, even if no help is coming. Obviously, we would all appreciate if the help was coming, but we have to help ourselves as well.

Julie Gunlock:

One thing I want to end with — and I actually want to end with you telling how they can follow you and know about your fundraising efforts and where to give. But before that, I want to say one thing. In your Townhall piece, which is so compelling, you talk about how the cruelty of the Soviets and now the cruelty of the Russians and really raiding and stealing the crops from Ukraine was something that the USSR managed to hide during the Great Famine, right? These things, we didn’t know; the West certainly did not know about that because, obviously, it was so many years ago, before technology. But it is a different time now, and you and I often write about how wonderful technology is and modernity makes life easier for people. And this is another case where the Russians simply won’t get away with it this time. And social media, and other forms of technology have really helped people catalog and record this.

And Maria, you are a part of that, and I really want to thank you for all the work that you’ve done on behalf of the Ukrainian people, not only the charitable work that you’re doing, but also keeping people aware through your Twitter account and through your writing. So thank you so much for everything you’ve done.

Maria Chaplia:

Thank you very much, Julie, thank you so much. I very much appreciate your support.

Julie Gunlock:

Now, Maria, can you tell our listeners the name of your charity, where to give, if there’re other things that we should be doing, and also your handles on social media.

Maria Chaplia:

Yes. One thing I would like to really emphasize by using this opportunity is, I understand it’s a bit challenging for many people to donate to military aid because they see this as we are funding war, whatever they see in this. But I would like to emphasize that Russia can only be stopped if Ukraine manages to stop it on the front lines. There is no other way to stop a country with which Ukraine has essentially been at war all its history, and not because Ukraine initiated it.

Julie Gunlock:

Of course.

Maria Chaplia:

So it’s very important, if you are willing to help, please do not be afraid to donate the initiatives, raising for uniforms, raising money for, I don’t know, sometimes we raise money for planes, for anything that’s really needed on the front lines. That’s what Alex and I have been doing in the past weeks. Our crowd funding can be found in JustGiving and it’s Hammond and Chaplia. If you just type in JustGiving Chaplia, you’ll probably be able to find it.

Julie Gunlock:

We will be sure to include these links, Maria, at the end. I do want to emphasize one other thing: I get there is a, like Maria said, there is a debate going on of people worrying giving certain military aid is provocative, blah, blah, blah. But there are other ways in which you can help the military, and one of the ways, Maria, I saw on Twitter that you and Alexander are doing this, is with uniforms. Ukrainian soldiers need more uniforms. And so that is another way in which you can help the Ukrainian people. And I think a really effective way of doing that because, as you say, it helps the people that are fighting the Russians on the front lines.

Maria Chaplia:

Yes, we are raising money for uniforms, and Ukrainian soldiers are extremely grateful for uniforms. Many of them get to the front lines wearing, like, sportswear, just because there is often many volunteers and sometimes you get sent to the front lines, you just get a notification, you have to go and you have to leave within the next few days. And obviously, supplies are running short; Ukraine’s economy is crippling. So it’s all thanks to our shared efforts that those people can actually have a uniform and eventually get some protection as a body armor, which is also something that we would like to buy more of, as well as drones. There is so, so many things that can be just bought. In the U.S., the situation is still a bit different, but in Europe you can’t really buy military stuff; in the UK and Poland, everything has been sold off, and it’s all thanks to volunteers and everything.

Julie Gunlock:

Maria, much of your family is still in Ukraine, correct?

Maria Chaplia:

Yes. All of them are.

Julie Gunlock:

Well, listen, you know that I am praying for your family and all of the Ukrainian people, and you have my support, and we are going to promote your charity. But people should just please not forget that this is a very important cause to support. And if you can, financially, to give to these charities that are working to help the Ukrainian people. Maria, again, thank you so much for coming on, and please reach out to me if you want to come on and update our listeners.

Maria Chaplia:

Thank you. Thank you very much, Julie. Thank you.

Julie Gunlock:

Thanks everyone for being here for another episode of the Bespoke Parenting Hour. If you enjoyed this episode or like the podcast in general, please leave a rating or review on iTunes. This helps ensure that the podcast reaches as many listeners as possible. If you haven’t subscribed to The Bespoke Parenting Hour on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts, please do so, so you won’t miss an episode. Don’t forget to share this episode and let your friends know that they can get Bespoke episodes on their favorite podcast app. From all of us here at the Independent Women’s Forum, thanks for listening.