Like so many Ukrainian refugees, Mariana Garmash and her two boys were “trapped in the gap,” refugees without refugee status, unable to qualify for certain federal services, and –with her husband b…
The frantic call came in on a Thursday afternoon. The mother with the thick accent had recently fled Ukraine with her two young boys and wound up in San Jose with no one to turn to.Michelle Lee understood the desperation.
Each story is as heartbreaking as the next. And Irena Mandelboym has helped translate many of them. An Odessa native whose sister remains in Ukraine with her own two sons, she was called in from the agency’s Holocaust survivors program not only to interpret the immediate needs of the new refugees in distress but to be a calming, familiar voice from their shared homeland.
“I’ve always seen refugees as though we are receiving a very fragile package,” said Mindy Berkowitz, CEO of Jewish Family Services. “So we handle each newcomer with care and give them the best possible start in life so that they can turn around and be self-sufficient — that they can turn around and help other people. And that’s what they all do.
As it cools down in the evening, Ukrainian refugee Mariana Garmash tries to put a hat on her two-year-old son, Dariy, on Oct. 26, 2022, in Santa Clara. With help from the nonprofit, Mariana enrolled in English classes and, after recently receiving a work permit, is looking for a job.
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