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'The children will bring peace': Ukrainian-born couple sending aid to their homeland, will teach peace at Cape Cod preschool

Dennis couple Misha Bokhenok and Yuliia Svieshnikova, both originally from Ukraine, are collecting supplies to help the people of their homeland during the war sparked by Russia's invasion. They're shown here with daughter Kvitka Bokhenok, 2, in the Centerville building where the couple plans to open a preschool.
Jennette Barnes
/
CAI
Dennis couple Misha Bokhenok and Yuliia Svieshnikova, both originally from Ukraine, are collecting supplies to help the people of their homeland during the war sparked by Russia's invasion. They're shown here with daughter Kvitka Bokhenok, 2, in the Centerville building where the couple plans to open a preschool.

Dropcloths and paint cans are scattered around the Centerville building that Misha Bokhenok and Yuliia Svieshnikova plan to open as a Montessori preschool in May.

But right now, it’s the boxes and bags by the front door that matter. They’re filled with supplies for the people of Ukraine: food, bandages and baby formula, to name a few.

The Ukrainian-born couple — now Dennis residents — came to Massachusetts a few years ago. Both have relatives in Ukraine, and they want to help protect their country and send aid to people wounded or displaced by the Russian invasion.

“We have already sent walkie talkie[s] to them because that was … the first need,” Svieshnikova said. “They need walkie talkie[s]. They also need bulletproof vests and helmets as well. And then medical supplies.”

Once a week, they’re driving up to Boston to deliver the items to Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church. The church is making shipments to a Polish city near the border with Ukraine, to be sent into Ukraine by local volunteers, she said.

Bokhenok, her husband, has a father in Ukraine and two young sisters who fled with their mother into Poland.

“Right now they're staying with my friend,” he said. “But they are looking for a place to stay, and I'm hoping that [the] European Union can help them with that.”

Worrying about their father is hard on the children, he said. “They [are] always watching pictures on the phone and crying and screaming about the father, that they want to have their father back.”

The couple, who also go by Mike and Julia, met while teaching in China. They have a 2-year-old daughter. Together they are planning to open Bayside Montessori Preschool in a former child care center.

Svieshnikova said one of the goals of their school — and their lives — is to raise children who will know peace.

“We cannot change — a lot — the situation that is happening right now in Ukraine and in the world,” she said. “But at least we can try to raise the children who will — who might bring peace to this world in the future.”

She said when it comes to aid, every little bit helps – whether it’s giving cash to a major organization, or sending food to people whose supermarket shelves are empty.

The couple is working with the Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce as a collection point for donations.

Jennette Barnes is a reporter and producer. Named a Master Reporter by the New England Society of News Editors, she brings more than 20 years of news experience to CAI.