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How a dance class in Santa Barbara is warming hearts and shelters in Ukraine

Stoves are being sent to Ukrainians in need by a Santa Barbara non-profit
World Dance for Humanity
The wood burning stoves are personalized with names and messages in Ukrainian

As the Russian invasion in Ukraine heads towards its first anniversary, a non-profit in Santa Barbara is sharing how it's helping some of the millions affected and displaced by the war.

Alexandr Mitin is sheltering in his darkened bomb-damaged apartment in Kherson, Ukraine, where winters are long, cold and snowy. He can’t have the lights on at night.

"Russians are bombing all the time, for the last day it was about 63 missile attacks in this city," he told KCLU.

He shows me a portable propane stove for cooking. A stove which was donated to him thanks to money raised by a Santa Barbara non-profit.

Now he is able to cook for him and his daughter, he explains.

A dance class in Santa Barbara might seem a world away from the brutalities of war in Ukraine. But this is World Dance for Humanity – a non-profit that aims to bring dancing to all ages and abilities, and raise money for a good cause in the process.

Janet Reineck, who runs World Dance for Humanity, says that while government can help on a large scale, she wanted to find a way to make a difference to those living in the war-torn country.

"Our group is helping in these small ways, person to person, heart to heart," said Reineck.

"Just doing our best to make sure people in Santa Barbara feel like common humanity with the people of Ukraine," said Reineck.

The stoves are one way that the non-profit helps folks like Alex. He says he tries to be sparing with the fuel needed to run the stove but smiles as he recounts how last week, he used it to make Borscht for him and his daughter which lasted him for days.

It was a comfort after living in war-time conditions for nearly a year, to have warm, familiar and favorite food.

Stoves are delivered to those in need in Ukraine
World Dance For Humanity
Stoves are delivered to those in need in Ukraine

As well as these cooking stoves, Reineck has been fundraising for wood-burning stoves to help keep Ukrainians warm as they shelter in what’s being called, invincibility shelters. They are bomb shelters, where people can go for warmth, shelter, food and to recharge their phones. The stoves are hand-crafted by a family in Kyiv, the man who invented them was killed last September on the road to Kherson, while delivering one of the stoves and his family have continued to make them in spite of the tragedy. Names of donors and messages in Ukrainian are painted onto the stoves.

"To be able to connect so deeply and personally with people in Ukraine who are suffering through this war is such a privilege - we are lucky to have found the way to do that through our community here," said Reineck.

Elena Ivannykova is in Kyiv. She helps to distribute the stoves. Tears well up in her eyes as she describes the impact of being helped by strangers, strangers she calls her American friends, in Santa Barbara.

"It keeps me alive, when living in this terrible situation," said Ivannykova.

Reineck says the humanity and personal help that comes with sending warmth and the means to cook a hot meal, is one step that meets the immediate needs of Ukrainians under attack.

Caroline joined KCLU in October 2020. She won LA Press Club's Audio Journalist of the Year Award in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Since joining the station she's won 10 Golden Mike Awards, 6 Los Angeles Press Club Awards, 2 National Arts & Entertainment Awards and a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Writing.

She started her broadcasting career in the UK, in both radio and television for BBC News, 95.8 Capital FM and Sky News and was awarded the Prince Philip Medal for her services to radio and journalism in 2007.

She has lived in California for eleven years and is both an American and British citizen - and a very proud mom to her daughter, Elsie.