Kokomo native offers Ukrainian refugee relief
Sydney and Raul Galen return to Romania with aid for those displaced by war
They are a Kokomo connected couple, fully committed to doing their share to relieve the ongoing humanitarian crises in Ukraine. Some 3.5 million refugees have fled the Russian bombardment of their country in a sea of despair. It has been gut wrenching to watch.
Meet Raul and Sidney Galan, a 27-year-old couple living in Romania, who were visiting Kokomo briefly on a recent vacation stop. This is where Sidney was raised. Her grandmother is Reba Harris, the revered, 81-year-old, life-changing savior and spiritual sister who founded and fuels Kokomo’s Gilead House, a highly regarded drug recovery facility.
“Much like the rest of the world, we’ve watched this war unfold on TV – horrified and saddened – for the people in Ukraine. So, we started where we could while being abroad,” reported Sidney. “Since we have been in Kokomo, we have raised over $1,500 so far, and we’ve sent that money on to Romania to a local NGO, which is a nongovernmental and nonprofit organization they have in Romania. They went out and purchased supplies for children. That’s baby food, diapers, formula, little toys, blankets, and hygiene products to put together packages for children and mothers to distribute.”
The Party of European Socialist Activists of Romania assemble donation bags for children refugees coming from Ukraine. The money collected by the Galans assisted in this effort.
Raul added, “They took them to the border areas, and there were volunteers there that were distributing these packages to the families with children that were coming. When they entered Romania, not having much, they had the necessary things to take care of the child for the next week or two. It’s almost like an emergency pack for the children.
“We raised that money here in Kokomo and sent it on to Romania where those packages were put together and then sent towards bordering cities where there are lots of refugees. But right now, the biggest need is coming from people still within Ukraine. So, we are trying to get those supplies across the border into Ukraine because there are people who have yet to make it out who need those supplies.”
Sidney says she grew up in a caring, giving atmosphere with her Kokomo family. The ideals she learned as a youngster from her grandmother, Reba, fuel her humanitarian efforts today.
“I like to say this is in my blood; this kind of having a heart for people and helping people,” she told this reporter. “I grew up in a family where that was nonnegotiable; you help when opportunities present themselves. For me, it is natural. Frankly, my grandmother was the main driving force behind the [Ukrainian relief] donations collection.
“Oh, we have to help,” Sidney said her grandmother told her. “She got on the phone. She reached out to all her networks. I reached out, but of course, I’ve been gone for a number of years, so my networks are not nearly as strong as hers. For me, instilled in me at a very young age was this obligation to help people and just a general desire and heart to help when there are problems. I see it as my duty.”
The Galans are both PhD candidates pursing degrees in Sociology from the University of Michigan where they met and married. They are also parents to 1-year-old daughter, Mara.
Sydney, Raul, and Mara Galan
Looking at the two during our ZOOM interview, they appear to be a dynamic, heartwarming, and worldly-wise couple. What is job one when you return home, I asked?
“One thing that is really on our hearts, is making our home available for refugees; particularly a family with young children,” said Sidney. “We have the infrastructure at home to host someone who has a child. We have toys. We have a crib. Imagine fleeing, like many women have. These are young women with children who have gotten on a train, and then maybe on a bus, and then maybe walked six or seven hours with their young baby. So, what it might mean to be able to put that baby asleep in a real crib. Those are some of things we want to be able to provide.”
Raul and Sidney are studying to become academic professors with a purpose.
“Our careers are both in sociology, we have this thing of really trying to identify the wrongs of the world and try to make things better,” Raul opined. “It’s a feeling of uncertainty because a month ago things we would have considered impossible are not impossible anymore. The war and this scale of violence; it’s the biggest war since World War II in Europe.
“We considered it to be almost impossible, like unimaginable, to see Kiev, the capitol of a European country, being bombed like this, and a full-scale war to happen in Europe. I don’t think anybody expected this type of full-on war with this level of violence.”
Their home, Romania, where Raul is from, is a neighboring state.
“The biggest border Romania has is with Ukraine,” Raul explained. “The town that we’re going to, where we live, is about two and a half hours from the Ukrainian border, but it is still a few hundred miles away from where the fighting is. Currently the fighting in Ukraine is concentrated in the north and eastern parts of the country, while Romania is more toward the western part of Ukraine. Still, we see a lot of refugees that are coming. Not as many as in Poland, but still we are talking about hundreds of thousands of refugees in Romania.”
Sidney added poignantly, “Thank God, we have never seen active warfare in America, so I don’t think people here in Kokomo even have an emotional context for what it might be like to be invaded, and what war actually looks like.
“When I talk to people, I really try to implore them to close their eyes and consider what it might be like for you to have grab a backpack and your baby and run and hope you can get on the train. There is a bit more of a context for that in Romania and just generally in Europe because these people have seen that historically.”
At this stage of their lives, I ask these Millennials, and with what they are returning to in Romania, are they fearful of what the future may look like?
Sydney and Mara celebrate Mara’s first birthday
“When 911 happened, I was in the first grade, and our generation can’t seem to catch a break, it feels like,” Sidney lamented. “I know tomorrow will not be like today, and my goal is to do everything possible to make tomorrow better than today. But if it is not, the goal is to be prepared for that.
“I won’t say I am fearful. I am on my toes. We’ve survived the first year of parenthood, and our world view is totally different now that we have a little one. For her, what will the future look like? We are facing existential threats like climate change, and that’s not discriminatory. It is coming for everyone. If World War III happens in the middle of all of that?”
Raul answered ruefully, “We are going from crisis to crisis. We had COVID. Now we have this in Ukraine keeping us busy, but underlying we have climate change. We have growing social inequality everywhere in the world. So, there are a lot of challenges that we need to face.
“We cannot be fearful of them because we cannot escape climate change. We must face the consequences of our actions. We must be realistic about what is going on in the world and prepare.”
They both concluded in unison and looking at each other, “We are optimistically hopeful.”