For more than a decade, Alina Tupchyk has been visiting her home country of Ukraine providing medical equipment, supplies and training to clinicians in remote villages. A licensed occupational therapist in Santa Barbara, CA, Alina began raising funds for a wheelchair accessible van in early 2022. In June 2022, she will travel to Ukraine and collaborate with clinicians in-country as they serve populations disproportionately affected by the conflict.

Tucked away near a forest and a river, on the site of a former communist youth camp, a ten-acre retreat center provides living spaces and a community center for refugees with disabilities.

The center is called Ray of Hope.

The campus still needs updates, but several universally designed mobile homes, funded by a local businessman, provide accessible housing for people displaced by war.

The organization that maintains the retreat center is called Mission Revival Ukraine. There is also an outpatient therapy clinic serving the local population out of a nearby church building (House of the Gospel) during the week.

The local clinicians are resourced by the church, accredited by local university and receive continuing education in-country by Kerry Moss, a physical therapist who directs the Physical Therapy Training Center at the NGO Agape Ukraine.