“We need to help them. We need to help in every corner of the United States.”

A call to action.

That’s what Steven Geiger, founder of the Mensch International Foundation, is asking from people across the Coachella Valley to help the people of Ukraine.

“We are connected with people in Hungary, we are connected to people in Germany and we are connected to people in Israel,” Geiger explained. “People that are going to these three countries, Jewish or non-Jewish, whatever they need help with and whatever money we get together, it goes to them. If you give a dollar, it goes exactly where it’s supposed to go.”

Whether it’s for food, clothing or gas for cars, Geiger is asking the desert community to help the countless refugees in Europe who are struggling to get basic needs.

But Geiger has another message.

“We, as Americans, have got to stop him,” he said. “The grassroots people should write to their congressmen, to their senators, to the vice president, to the president. Write to them. Say stop him. We gotta stop him.”

But, there’s a bigger reason why he is so adamant.

Geiger is a refugee of war.

“We escaped Hungary on November 29, 1956. Our apartment building was shot at by Russian tanks. It caught on fire. We had to escape for our lives from the building from the hideout in the basement.”

Geiger came to the United States when he was barely nine years old, and his path getting here is eerily similar to what people are currently experiencing in Ukraine and across Europe.

“My father finally got his sponsorship from his cousin and we ended up in New Jersey. There was a Hungarian refugee camp in New Jersey, Camp Kilmer. 70,000 Hungarians came during that time to the United States. 200,000 escaped Hungary, 70,000 to the United States. I’m tied to this emotionally because I sort of lived this.”

The foundation is also hoping to honor President Zelesnky as they have done for three other presidents.

For ways you can help support Ukrainian refugees through the Mensch International Foundation, see below.

Visit their website: http://www.menschfoundation.org/

Email: menschfoundation@yahoo.com

Call: (760) 416-3685

Local Non-Profit Foundation Plans to Help Ukrainian Refugees