Santa Barbara has been home to a family for nearly four decades, but its roots are in a country that's been torn by war for the last four years.
The family’s story isn’t an easy one. Igor Roz and his wife Sofia fled oppression in their Ukrainian homeland once, in the 1980s, when it was a Communist nation. They had a young daughter, with a second on the way.
"In 1989, Ukraine was part of the USSR," said Roz. "We lived in a town maybe 75 miles from the Chernobyl zone (the Chornobyl disaster in 1986 at a nuclear plant in Soviet Ukraine was the worst nuclear accident in history). At that time, we had one child, and a second was coming. That was reason one to leave. The second was the USSR. We didn't believe anything would change with the Soviet regime."
The family had relatives in Santa Barbara, so they had support to help them get started in America.
The young, aspiring musician brought his family from Ukraine to start a new life.
Roz started playing music on State Street in Santa Barbara. He later had a chance meeting with Pat Boone, which led to him connecting and then collaborating with gospel and jazz musicians. Roz became a friend and collaborator to gospel music legend Andrae Crouch.
He's been creating his own unique blend of gospel, jazz, and fusion music for nearly four decades.
His full name is Rozhko, but professionally he goes by Roz.
While his music brings him joy, he and his family have a bigger concern. They still have family in Ukraine, which has made the war heartbreaking for them.
"When the war started, one of our relatives was shot in the town where he lived. He was running to pick up his child who was near the family's apartment," said Roz. "There was shooting going on in the town's main square. He ran to pick up his kid and was shot and killed by a sniper. If you have relatives in Ukraine, you think about what could happen like this, because it happens almost every day."
"I saw the news that the war first broke out. I called my mom, and then I called her sister Vera (in Ukraine). I would call her every day to see how she was doing, and I could hear the missiles flying over her apartment," said the couple’s daughter, Simona. "She was so calm, but she was scared. She has a husband and a daughter. I broke down, because it's someone I know and love. "
Another daughter, Francis, was born in the United States, and admits it’s hard to see life going on normally here when she also knows what’s happening in her family’s homeland.
"I'm the first-generation American in our family. I think it was a moment for me where I really started to connect with my Ukrainian roots, just imagining what it would be like if I lived there today."
Igor Roz says that as hard as the war has been on his homeland, he understands the drive to push on and to not surrender.
"Freedom is more important than bombs," said Roz. "If you lose it, you are a prisoner. Not Moscow, not Putin, should be dictating what you do. Ukrainians want freedom."
The family wanted to do something to help those in need in Ukraine. They started with a GoFundMe, which raised about $50,000 for essentials like food and insulin for Ukrainians in crisis.
Now, they’ve created a nonprofit to continue that work, called Heal Ukraine Foundation.
It's raised another $100,000 for relief efforts. They say that while the war has largely dropped out of the headlines here in the United States, the need for help is as big as ever in their homeland.
