A Houston-area exchange student from Ukraine raises $19K to help evacuate her family from Kyiv

While the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops may seem a world away to most Americans, for 16-year-old Montgomery ISD exchange student Anya Arseienko it is literally on her doorstep. Arseienko is from Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, where her family still live. Right now, her family is fleeing the capital city for the border with Poland to get to safety. Her mother, father, younger sister, grandmother, and 98-year-old great-grandmother are stuck in a village near the border. They cannot travel by car and traveling by foot is difficult with her 98-year-old great-grandmother.

But the family is not without help. Arseienko’s host family started a fundraising campaign on GiveSendGo.com on Saturday with the goal of raising $10,000 to help Anya’s family get to safety. The fundraiser far surpassed its goal in less than a day and as of Monday afternoon had already raised close to $19,000. Arseienko has been living with the Boniface family since December, and is currently a junior at Lake Creek High School. Nicole Boniface said she is already like a member of the family. “Anya is doing about as good as any 16-year-old girl in this situation could be doing, it’s very hard for her,” Boniface said. “But she is a very resilient girl. She has a very big support system around her.” The goal right now is to get the family to the American embassy in Poland and go from there. The Boniface family is prepared to try and bring the Arseienkos to Texas, or help set them up wherever they can go. Right now, because Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 must stay and fight, Anya’s father cannot leave with the rest of his family.