GROVELAND – When Terry and Bernardine Clifford first tasted Nadiia Sadowski’s authentic Ukrainian food at a fundraising dinner at the Custom House in Newburyport, they offered to host a dinner at their 97 Pub here to raise money to feed the people of Nova Kahovka, Nadiia’s hometown in southern Ukraine.
“We can do this,” Bernardine Clifford told her husband.
They organized the Sadowskis’ third dinner at their club on a Sunday evening when the business was closed. The dinner attracted dozens who enthusiastically tasted a variety of authentic Ukrainian dishes.
For more than four months, Jarrod and Nadiia Sadowski have been raising funds on the North Shore and organizing volunteers in Ukraine to deliver food and essentials to more than 3,000 people each week.
“Our volunteers have been running into a more agitated Russian military every day,” Jarrod wrote. “More and more people are wanting to evacuate this tense city but are being denied and told to go back home. We are seeing each and every day the Russian military attempting to convert stores and services within the city to Russian rubles and Russian basic services. Residents are losing internet, water and electricity for days at a time with no concern for people’s lives.”
The Sadowski’s have been approved for a 501C3, non-profit status for their fundraising.
“With your help, even $20 a week, we are able to provide the most basic foods, hygiene items and clothes to people in Ukraine who really need our help right now. We all wish this terror was over but for millions trapped in occupied southern regions inside Ukraine, each day is a challenge,” Jarrod wrote.
Dan Healey of Amesbury, former owner of ARC Technologies, has agreed to match donated funds up to $1,000.
“If you have any questions as to how we are able to mobilize directly within occupied Ukraine, please reach out to myself, Jarred, or my wife, Nadiia, a native Ukrainian who moved to Newburyport in 2018 as her entire family (parents, sister and her family and her friends with their families) all still live in Nova Kahovka, Ukraine,” Jarrod wrote.
For more information or to donate, visit Nova Kahovka for Life, Inc. at https://novakahovka.life/
