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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Hearing words of support from community members of Paradise in northern California was heartwarming, said Yulia Golovinoa, who is from occupied Lugansk in Ukraine.
She and other Ukrainian local government workers are visiting Paradise to learn about rebuilding and resilience from those who had to start over after the devastating 2018 Camp Fire.
The high level of destruction is something Golovinoa said she can relate to.
“The people of my county have sustained a lot of devastation and destruction,” said Golovinoa, through a translator. “Paradise and the community of Paradise have been in a similar situation for a different reason. So, it’s really interesting to me how the community got together.”
The town of Paradise lost around 14,000 homes and many more structures along with 85 lives due to the Camp Fire.
Golovinoa said similarly her county has lost almost all buildings and homes and everyone who lived there has been displaced.
The mother of one said it’s been insightful hearing about grassroots efforts.
“The way how the people of Paradise work together, how they started their initiatives, how they started their collaboration,” she said.
The group’s visit is an initiative of Rotary International who put out a call for resiliency and rebuilding programs, which the Paradise Rotary Club answered.
Copresident Sonny Ventimiglio said they are happy to speak with anyone in such a situation.
He said coming together in community groups to understand the needs of those rebuilding and then working with various entities to get those needs met is a large part of the information sharing during the group’s visit.
“The water district talked a little bit about there was 10% of the homes that remained [after the Camp Fire],” Ventimiglio said. “And a logistical challenge they had was how do you get water back to the homes that are still there when the majority of homes around them are destroyed, therefore the water system is destroyed.”
Ventimiglio said so far they have also learned about how they were able to get kids back to schooling and the importance of creating parks and places of enjoyment for the community.
With news of a ceasefire, Golovinoa said due to their history with Russia, she can only be cautiously optimistic.
“We are certainly optimistic to an extent,” she said. “Russia have a history of breaking ceasefires.”
What Golovinoa said gives her the most hope is knowing they have support from people who care, such as she experienced speaking with local school kids in Paradise.
“The advice was stay strong, stay together, be friendly,” Golovinoa said. “And that was so touching that pretty much all of our groups had tears, like I have right now thinking about it.”
Words Golovinoa said she can’t express enough of how thankful she is to the people of Paradise, along with the support organizations in the U.S. have given and continue to give.
