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Medical missionary from Ohio worries for girls she's gotten to know in Ukraine

Marty Siegel has been visiting the Good Samaritan Home for Children since 1999, and wonders what is next for the girls.

BELLEVUE, Ohio — The war in Ukraine is putting the country's most vulnerable citizens in a precarious position and has left those who’ve helped to care for them from our country worried for their safety.

Marty Siegel is an occupational therapist and medical missionary from Bellevue.

She’s visited Ukraine's Good Samaritan Home for Children 18 times with Sharing America’s Resources Abroad (S.A.R.A), a medical mission affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

As she’s watched the country’s invasion by Russian troops unfold, Marty is left to wonder how the children she's cared for and gotten to know will make it to the border.

She also worries about what will happen to them after they get out of the country.

“The children that are handicapped are going to be the hardest to place, and the hardest to get out of the country if they need to flee and go to a refugee camp,” said Siegel.

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One of the girls at the Good Samaritan Home for Children, Yanna, was unable to walk before working with Siegel.

Yanna, an orphan, was born with Cerebral Palsy and was in a wheelchair when she met Siegel.

With the strengthening exercises Siegel was able to show the staff at the home, Yanna is able to use a walker and no longer needs a wheelchair.

Although in her early 20s now, the Good Samaritan Home is the only home Yanna has ever known, according to Siegel.

Siegel says there are girls with all abilities at the home; some are blind, some are deaf, some have cognitive issues.

One of Siegel’s worries is that there would be people at refugee camps that would be able to care of the children, especially those with special needs.

“I don’t know how they can possibly comprehend what is happening,” said Siegel. “The fact that they may be panicked or in fear is what really, as an occupational therapist, really touches me and gives me grave concern.”

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Siegel has big concerns for the home itself, which is near Ukraine’s border with Hungary.

"My concern for the home as a whole is that they can keep the kids together because they only know each other as a sibling or family unit,” said Marty. “My other concern is that if they can stay there that they have enough supplies and food and clothing and medicines they need, and that the staff that cares for them is safe."

Siegel has been to Ukraine every year for decades except in the aftermath of 9-11 and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She was set to visit again this fall.

Siegel says she could tell hundreds of stories about the girls at the home and hopes, desperately, that she is able to return to see them again.

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