For a week, Sarah Roulette had been praying for an opportunity to help Ukrainian refugees. God answered her prayers through fellow alumna Cayla Metzger, who needed a photojournalist to join her on a mission to 波兰.
Roulette and Metzger spent one week in 4月 volunteering with 空中回收组 in Rzeszow, a Polish city an hour and a half from the Ukrainian border. The Nashville-based nonprofit sends teams of trained volunteers to respond to manmade and natural disasters.
当空中救援小组看到梅茨格, 纳什维尔的居民, 协调任务行程, they asked her to help coordinate their humanitarian trip to 波兰 and Ukraine. Metzger sought a photographer and videographer to join the team, and she knew of Roulette’s remarkable photo and video skills from their college days.
While a PBA student, Roulette was a director for the 艾美奖获奖 电影 马弗拉克的四个家庭, which follows the stories of four Syrian refugee families living in the Middle East. Roulette now works as communications coordinator for Adopt-A-Family of the Palm Beaches.
Roulette觉得“很想在某种程度上提供帮助,” with the Ukrainian refugee crisis and followed her former professor Dr. Mike Griffin’s advice to “put your ‘yes’ on the table and give it to God.“她愿意以任何方式提供帮助. When the opportunity to use her photojournalism skills popped up, that was even better.
“My heart with journalism is to give a voice to people who are experiencing unimaginable hardship and hearing and honoring their stories,轮盘说. “My trips with PBA equipped me well to handle the weight of that. 这很大程度上要归功于我在 跨文化研究.”
梅茨格是 苏Refugio, a nonprofit serving orphans and widows in Paraguay, Peru and Argentina. As a PBA student, she was part of a team of students who 设计并执行公共关系活动 她后来在苏雷弗吉奥实习.
Both 2020 graduates say their PBA experiences opened the door for them to effectively serve Ukrainian refugees in 波兰.
Half of their team – the special ops military veterans – went into Ukraine to evacuate orphans from bomb shelters to vetted safe houses within Ukraine’s borders. 孤儿, 谁易受人口贩运的影响, must remain in the country because they are in the custody of the state, Metzger说.
Metzger and Roulette worked in the refugee camps in 波兰, aided by two or three translators and the Google Translate app. Just a short drive from Ukraine, “life around us was very, very normal,” Metzger说
但对于难民来说，生活一点也不正常. Moms who gave birth just before crossing the border hadn’t yet been seen by a doctor. A physician assistant did medical check-ins for the new mothers, people with head colds and people whose prescriptions were running out.
Mothers and grandmothers who flee are left to care for rambunctious young children alone because men are required to stay in Ukraine to fight. The 空中回收组 team put together a trampoline for one camp and a sandbox for another to help keep the children entertained.
Roulette’s job was to get to know the people in the camps, interview them and photograph them. 有一次, she sat in a coffee shop in the mall uploading her photos while the rest of her team shopped for luggage, suitcases and supplies to deliver to the camps the next morning.
轮盘对尼娜印象特别深刻, a 14-year-old girl who was excited to practice her English. A hairdresser on their team spent the day giving the refugee women and children haircuts, 妮娜帮忙翻译风格.
“It was sweet to see Nina be used in that way at such a young age,轮盘说. “她身上有那么多的光明和爱. She is one of the sweetest and most compassionate people I’ve met.”
Roulette and Metzger were among the younger people in the group and learned much from those who were older. Roulette was very ill on the last few days of the trip and was encouraged by the way the other women cared for her. She also worked alongside another experienced photographer on the trip.
“What a gift it was to serve with those specific people and see their hearts,轮盘说.
Photo 1: Sarah Roulette shows photos to a little girl who fled Ukraine. Roulette volunteered to serve Ukrainian refugees in Rzeszow, 波兰, 和同为PBA校友的凯拉·梅茨格一起.
Photo 2: Sarah Roulette poses for a photo with Nina, 一位帮助翻译的乌克兰少年, and another girl she met while serving refugees in 波兰.
Photo 3: PBA alumna Cayla Metzger plays with a little boy in 波兰, where Metzger and fellow alumna Sarah Roulette served Ukrainian refugees.
Photo 4: A medical professional from the 空中回收组 team checks on Ukrainian refugees living in 波兰.
Photo 5: Cayla Metzger and Sarah Roulette pose for a photo with their 空中回收组 team.
