Helping Ukrainian children to safety

BY BILL DOYLE  | CFP CORRESPONDENT 

Wally Connor has helped orphans around the world for 23 years, but he’s never experienced anything like this before. 

Ukrainian orphans are in need of safe evacuation from their country to escape Russian bombs. So Mr. Connor, executive director of Supporting Orphans Nationally & Globally (SONG) in his hometown of Brookfield, will travel to a classified border crossing point between Ukraine and Poland to assist in the evacuation. He’s scheduled to depart on April 5 and stay 8-14 days. 

SONG is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) charitable organization that supports orphaned children around the world and foster children in the U.S., mainly in Massachusetts. 

Mr. Connor, 68, will represent SONG on the trip with nine others from volunteer organizations and five staff members from the Aerial Recovery Group, a team of U.S. military veterans based in Nashville, Tennessee. Mr. Connor will pay for his own air fare. 

SONG has supported orphaned children in Siberia, Pakistan, South Africa, the Philippines and Uganda, and assisted the adoption of Russian children by American parents. 

This, however, will be the first time that Mr. Connor has helped orphaned children evacuate from their country. 

He will remain in Poland and become part of a logistics team that will coordinate volunteers and the on-the-ground rescue team bringing orphans out of Ukraine. His duties will range from shopping for clothing or medical needs to transporting orphans in a van to relaying weather reports via radio and cell phone. 

“The need is great right now,” Mr. Connor said, “to put this team together to address not only the safe passage of orphans, but to interfere with traffickers.” 

Salam, a charitable organization which helps refugees in Ukraine, reported that many orphaned and unaccompanied children have been dropped off at the border by well-meaning organizations, only to disappear after traffickers promise them food, safety and security. A BBC News article linked to from the SONG website, noted that some traffickers trick the orphans by wearing reflective vests and pretending to belong to organizations assisting in the relief effort. 

Men aged 18-60 are not allowed to leave Ukraine because they’re needed to fight in the war, but a man with at least three children can exit.  

The BBC article quotes Martin Kvernbekk, of the Salam charity, as saying that there are reports of men taking children from orphanages, crossing the border with them and using them for trafficking purposes. 

Mr. Connor said the orphans who disappear could be sold into slavery or become subjected to physical or sexual abuse or prostitution.  

“This crisis is unprecedented,” Mr. Connor said, “and like no other that we’ve experienced in our history of supporting and helping these children. Trafficking of innocent children is incomprehensible to us, but continues to victimize children in many parts of the globe.” 

As of early March, about 200,000 children lived in orphanages and foster homes in Ukraine, but that number likely grew with the loss of parents during the war, Mr. Connor said.Aerial Recovery Group has evacuated more than 300 orphans. 

Asked how many more he hoped to evacuate while he worked at the Poland-Ukraine border, Mr. Connor replied, “As many as possible.” 

The children will be sent to orphanages or temporary shelters in Poland and throughout Europe with the goal of eventually finding more permanent homes. 

“The main thing is to get them out of the country to get away from the bombing and the shelling,” Mr. Connor said. 

Mr. Connor and his fellow volunteers could be facing danger if a Russian missile strays off target. As a U.S. Air Force veteran, volunteer firefighter for 25 years in Brookfield and SONG executive director who has traveled abroad, he’s faced danger before. 

SONG has begun a fund- 
raiser to support the orphans at the border. Donations can be mailed to S.O.N.G., Inc., c/o North Brookfield Savings Bank, 9 Gilbert St., North Brookfield, MA 01535, or sent via Venmo at @SONGInc or PayPal at info@supporting orphans.org. Checks can also be mailed to S.O.N.G. Inc., 122 Long Hill Road, PO Box 426, Brookfield, MA 01506-0426. Note “S.O.S. Ukraine” in the memo section. 

SONG raised $3,500 in the first 48 hours and Mr. Connor expects to raise $10,000 in all. All donations are 100 percent tax deductible. 

The money will pay for clothing, food, toys and medical supplies for the orphans, most of whom range in age from 3-16. 

SONG’s roots can be traced back to 1989 when Mr. Connor, who was assistant program director, athletic director and basketball coach, traveled to Siberia with students from Valley View School in North Brookfield. When a group of Russians later visited North Brookfield, a boy stayed with Mr. Connor’s family. That boy also stayed with the Connors when he returned to the U.S. to earn his master’s degree at UMass-Boston. 

When the Connors were invited to visit the young man’s family in Siberia in 1998, they were taken aback by the poor condition of an orphanage and felt compelled to help. 

Mr. Connor said he relies on his Catholic faith and support from his parish, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in W. Brookfield, where he’s a Grand Knight in the Knights of Columbus. 

“We’ve been guided by the Holy Spirit in this entire mission for 23 years,” he said. “The beginning of our mission in Siberia, we felt we were put there for a reason and it was everything but the beam of light when I looked up and said, ‘OK Lord, we’ll do something.’” 

Mr. Connor and his wife, Michele, have visited Siberia 14 times and overseen SONG’s support of 10 orphanages in five regions of Siberia. 

“We watched some of these children grow,” Mr. Connor said, “from 3 or 4 years old all the way up to graduating from college. We still get emails from some of them.” 

Unfortunately, since Russia invaded Ukraine, SONG has not been allowed in Siberia and hasn’t been permitted to wire financial support. However, Mr. Connor has learned that the Russian government has filled the void at least in part by doing more for the orphans than before the war. Mr. Connor expects financial assistance to eventually become a problem though. 

“It’s going to launch things right back into the dire situation of the 1990s,” he said. “It’s awful.” 

Mr. Connor said because of the presence of the Taliban, care had to be taken while working in Pakistan with orphans, who were persecuted because they were Christians. 

“But we had good support on the ground so we were able to work successfully in a very quiet, discreet manner,” he said. 

Working on the Poland-Ukraine border will be another challenge, but Mr. Connor pointed out that the Aerial Recovery Group has trained special forces who have worked at such other disasters as hurricanes and earthquakes. 

“They’re one of the first groups in to help people,” he said. “Their main mission is to save lives.” 

That’s what Mr. Connor plans to do as well. 

PHOTO: Courtesy of Wally Connor
Wally Connor takes a selfie with some boys at Minusinsk Children’s Home in the Region of Khakassia, Siberia, in 2015. His organization, Supporting Orphans Nationally & globally, helps orphans around the world. Now he is heading to the border of Ukraine and Poland to help.

DONATIONS FOR UKRAINE

To date, people have contributed $40,181 to the diocesan collection for aid to Ukraine.  

The diocese is forwarding the money to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops which is uniquely positioned to provide aid to the region, having built strong relationships with brother bishops there. 

Donations can be made online at www.worcesterdiocese.org/ukraine-relief-collection, or by making out a check to Diocese of Worcester – Ukraine and mailing it to Diocese of Worcester,  49 Elm St., Worcester, MA 01609. 

Also, parishes are making direct contributions to entities the pastors have relationships with. 

Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish, Worcester, collected $44,260 for the provincial house of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth in Krakow, Poland, to serve people in Ukraine and refugees in Poland. 

St. Andrew Bobola Parish, Dudley, collected $12,420 for the three parishes in Ukraine pastored by Father Krzysztof Wilk, seminary classmate of Father Krzysztof Korcz, pastor of St. Andrew Bobola.