Meet Molly and Team Nadiya

After fleeing Kharkiv, their beloved city, Yulia and Rustam Yahubov and their two sons arrived to York, PA on December 14 to the welcoming arms of Team Nadiya.

Months prior, after a prayer night for Ukraine, Molly Loyer felt the nudge in her heart to join WelcomeNST. “This just felt like the next step to actually do something tangible,” she says. She rallied together the community she was already in— her church life group— and created Team Nadiya! As she put it, “I wasn't as well versed in the business side of things or even knowing things like ‘Is this a good car or not?’ But I loved that I could rely on a core team of key people.” They integrated their team coordination into the two-hour life group meeting they already held weekly.

The team found a car for the family, helped them get Social Security cards, and organized housing and English classes. Rustam, with a Masters in Finance, is savvy and hardworking, and now has a job in his field as an electrician!

Thanks to Google Translate, Molly and Yulia have built a sweet friendship, bonding over yoga and being mothers. Their sons now take the school bus together, and their families even celebrated Christmas together. “What a neat blessing it’s been to see how this is working with our kiddos and changing them, and how fun it’s been to get to know this family,” Molly said.

On election day, the team held a bake sale at the polling station, and all the funds went to the Yahubovs. That day, something struck Molly. “Nobody said Why are you doing this? Why are you bringing Ukrainians over? Democrat, Republican, moderate, radical, whatever. Everybody said this is a wonderful thing to do. And that's just the point— you don't have to have the same beliefs, or vote the same way or go to a church or not. It's just a good thing to do.”

It’s true. Providing refuge to those who need it most is at the core of what it means to be human.