Greenfield, Indiana — Over the Christmas holiday, and in the summer 2021, Greenfield resident Barbara Hughes hosted 10-year-old twins from Ukraine.
“We bonded with them. They participated in all of our summer activities. We had planned some special summer things to do with them. They were here for Christmas,” Hughes said.
Twins were part of a program where Ukrainian children who live in orphanages during the school year can live with an American family during the summer.
Hughes asked Indiana’s congressional delegation just days after the war in Ukraine broke out, if it could help bring the kids back to Indiana, at least until the war subsided.
Unfortunately, she was told by the Ukrainian government that the kids could not leave the country. “I think the official answer that they gave is they don’t want the kids spread out any more than they are for tracking purposes,” she said.
Hughes has had minimal contact with the boy through his older brother. She was in contact with the boy’s twin sister until recently. “The 10-year-old girl, especially, when they went back I would talk to her almost every day with messages and then at least once a week with video chat, and she doesn’t have her phone. Her phone was left in her original orphanage,” Hughes said.
According to the Greenfield woman, it’s hard for her to go about her day and not think about what her “host kids” may be going through, possibly sleeping in bomb shelters and being on the move constantly. “I almost feel guilty about how it makes me feel depressed, or angry or frustrated, or scared or worried because the kids are there and they are living it.”
