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New York, NY – Vilnius, Lithuania, February 28, 2022
Jurate Kazickas, President of the Kazickas Family Foundation
The deplorable Russian attack on Ukraine has shaken the free world and caused a major humanitarian crisis throughout the region as people flee to seek safety. The Kazickas Family Foundation along with its international partners is committed to assist those who are vulnerable and displaced. We are providing financial aid to local charitable associations in support of the brave citizens of Ukraine:
- Red Cross Lithuania that provides medical supplies and hygiene items to Ukraine;
- Save the Children that is helping children, who remained in Ukraine, needs.
The Kazickas family’s history – being forced to leave Lithuania in July, 1944 as the Soviet army advanced to occupy the country - always reminds us of the suffering endured by those at risk of losing the stability of their lives and their loved ones in their homeland.
The following words were written by Alexandra Kazickas, just months after the Soviet invasion of Lithuania, as a refugee with her husband, Joseph P. Kazickas, and daughter, Jurate, in Czechoslovakia:
“The days are warm and beautiful, and it would be beautiful to live if there were no pain in the heart, that we have no homeland and it is overflowing with blood. Is the wonderful and peaceful life behind us? Where are our relatives? Are they still alive? They talk about such terror and killings in our homeland. We cannot talk about happy living. We live pushing through the day and keep thinking about the time we will be able to return to [Lithuania.] …”
(August 28, 1944, Klösterle, Czechoslovakia)----from Odyssey of Hope