MARBLEHEAD, MASS. (WHDH) - After fleeing from Kyiv, a Ukrainian tour guide is trying to make it to Massachusetts to help reunite a family.
When Barbara and James Schaye visited Ukraine three years ago to adopt their son Bohdon, they developed some strong ties in the country. The Marblehead couple formed a relationship with Bodon’s cousin Liza Poplavska and a tour guide Olena Klimova.
Fast forward to the attack on Ukraine, Klimova had made it safely out of Kyiv and into the Czech Republic but, 21-year-old Poplavska was still stuck in Ukraine.
The Schayes knew they had to do something for their son’s cousin – they’re so close, he refers to her as his “sister”. So, they reached out to Klimova on Facebook to see if she could help.
“She realized the threat but she didn’t want to leave the hometown and her friends and relatives. So inside she was not ready for that,” said Olena.
Poplavska, made it out of her village and to the Polish border, where Klimova met her with a sign with her name on it. Now, the two women are in the Czech Republic, and working on making their way to Massachusetts.
“Of course, she was very afraid in the beginning and during the trip because the train was changing constantly, the route trying to escape the shootings, so during the whole trip it was very very scary,” Klimova explained. “It will be a new chapter — and already here in the Czech Republic already a new chapter, not just the United States. She feels now the whole situation has changed for her.”
Olena already has a visa to come to the United States, because she also worked with families here to help orphans travel to the US. Now, the Schayes are working to get Poplavska a visa.
They know it will be difficult, but they are really hoping they can get her here in the next few months.
“[Liza] is just adorable she is so so sweet and the fact that she connected with Olena is miraculous I mean really incredible,” Barbara Schaye said.
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