Before the war ever started, 3 of my 4 Carlitos illustrators were Ukrainian. I hired them over a year before the war ever started from a freelance company after my original artist retired. He and I prayed together that God would lead me to an artist who could not only keep the brand intact, but one who would also be totally on board with this ministry. Long story short, God led me not to one, but to four! One is from Brazil and the other three are from Ukraine! All four are Christians and are totally behind this ministry. They consider their work for Carlitos their own ministry. I had already developed a close relationship with all my artists as we continued to do ministry together. When the war began, it affected all three of my Ukrainian artists, Karina, Larisa and Alisa. But in particular Karina with her sister Veronika. This literally changed the trajectory of this ministry because of my relationship with them. (Read more Q&A’s to dive deeper).
One of my artists, Karina, was finishing up art school in Italy, a longtime dream. She was already doing Carlitos illustrations for me as she was attending classes. She was about to come home to Ukraine, but her plans were abruptly halted as the war began and they no longer allowed flights into Ukraine. So she had to stay and enroll in extra semesters just to have a reason to stay. In the meantime, her younger sister Veronika was in Odesa, Ukraine, in her 6th year of Med School, majoring in Neurology, when the war began. She and her Mom had to leave Ukraine immediately for their safety, and they ended up as refugees with Karina in Italy. (Their Dad is under the age of 60 so was required to stay in Ukraine. He is a local pastor of an Evangelical Christian Church in Odesa.) Both girls were understandably confused, and looking for God’s purpose & direction for them. Karina speaks Italian, but Veronika does not. Veronika speaks excellent English, however. So the three of us prayed together for discernment. Then God planted within us the dream of starting the Carlitos ministry for war-affected kids in Ukraine who were displaced, traumatized, homeless, orphaned and without hope. They both decided to “bloom where they were planted” by helping me develop the ministry for their own people, from where they were at in Italy.
Veronika translated everything from English to Ukrainian. Karina used the translations and created all the illustrations used for the materials and videos in their language. Veronika manages the entire project in Ukraine, from Ukraine. (Veronika recently took a chance and moved back to Odesa to be with her family and friends. She now manages the ministry from there. I gave her the title “Project Manager”).
I am happy to say that everything is made in Ukraine! All packet materials are made and printed in Ukraine, all items purchased such as the packets, crayons and sharpeners are purchased in Ukraine, and all monkeys are now produced in Ukraine! This helps their economy and employs their people during these trying times in their country. So Carlitos is helping the Ukrainian people in more ways than one!
Veronika takes everything that Karina illustrates and organizes them, makes the orders, and assembles the packets. Then she finds and works with a number of Ukrainian pastors, mission workers, humanitarian workers and volunteers across their country. As donations allow us to pay for more materials, She finds out how many each ministry needs to distribute to war-affected children, and sends them to the leaders. From there, the leaders take mission trips to the places with the most needs. They bring food, clothing, medical supplies, and the Carlitos items for the children. Veronika also is part of a local humanitarian team from her church in Odesa who travel to vulnerable villages in the eastern part of Ukraine.
We are finding refugee families all over the United States, little by little. Most of them are Moms, children & grandparents who come on government programs such as Uniting For Ukraine. These programs require American sponsors and offer limited resources for a period of time. So once we learned of refugees coming to America, we decided to expand the ministry even further. We took Karina’s designs, and have everything printed locally here in Tampa, FL. For the monkeys, we make the Ukrainian version in China and have them shipped by sea to my home in FL. I can then distribute them locally and mail them within the U.S to refugee children that we find through networking. We have helped hundreds of kids already, and have access to literally thousands through various people who have contact with them. We help them as we obtain funding. If you happen to know of any Ukrainian refugee children in your area, please contact me at Charlie@Carlitos4Kids.com. I will gladly welcome them with Carlitos and his Be Brave material in their own language!
Alisa is still in Ukraine. She lives in the western part of Ukraine near Lviv. The ground war hasn’t reached that part of Ukraine, so she decided to stay as long as possible. They still face missile attacks frequently, but they carry on as best as possible. Alisa still draws for me, but she is not directly involved in the Carlitos Ukrainian project. However she did contribute the home page illustration of the little girl in the window. Larisa is now a refugee in Israel with her parents. She was in the capital city of Kyiv when the war started, and they were under siege at the time. Her parents are half Jewish, so a Jewish humanitarian group ushered them out of Ukraine as Kyiv began to be encircled. Larisa is trying to adjust to her new environment and learn the Hebrew language, which is a tall task! But she is doing well and she continues to draw for me. She is not directly involved with the mission, but has contributed many coloring pages for the refugee coloring book. I keep up with both girls regularly.
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