Locals Dusing, Gardner head back to the front in Ukraine, bouyed by support of humanitarian efforts

Staff report

Ben Dusing and John Gardner have started their journey back to Kherson to resume their humanitarian efforts in the war-torn region of Ukraine.

Dusing and Gardner have been in NKY for several weeks, joined by Ukrainian Kristina Synia who has assisted them in their World Aid Runners’ Free Store at the Front — and who is a survivor herself of Russian atrocities there. The three took a break from the havoc to regroup and raise funds to expand their work.

For attorney-turned-humanitarian Dusing, his journey started over two years ago when he went to the Polish border to help Ukrainian refugees arriving there after the Russian invasion of their homeland.

Today, his efforts have expanded considerably and he’ll be going back to Ukraine having established a nonprofit that owns multiple rescue vehicles and runs a free store that provides life-saving supplies to people impacted by the war. Gardner joined him early on. They met Synia while providing aid to her homeplace, and they have acquired three other companions who will be accompanying them. Americans Jeff Barret of North Carolina and Inna Malyuk of Lexington signed up to volunteer in the place Dusing now calls his “other home,” Kherson, Ukraine.

Located on the so-called “right bank” of the Dneiper River, which bisects Ukraine, Kherson was the only big city occupied by the Russians for the first nine months of the war. Their atrocities there have been widely reported. From its prewar 400,000 people, Kherson has a remaining 50,000 residents who really have no place else to go or are unable to go anywhere. Since its liberation, the city has been the only big city in Ukraine directly on the front line. The Russians retreated to the left bank.

Dusing and Gardner arrived to the city just after its liberation, using their connections, experience, and equipment to help a local volunteer organization evacuate non-ambulatory victims. They have come home for short stretches to see their families — and drum up support for their efforts.

Dusing and Gardner quickly became, as Synia says, “a part of the city.”  Known by the local population as “Kherson’s Americans,” they founded World Aid Runners, a registered non-profit in the U.S., and opened a brick-and-mortar office downtown, just over one kilometer from the front, in September 2023. They also brought on fulltime local staff.

World Aid Runners was the first, and still the only, foreign humanitarian organization resident in the city. Over time their local footprint has grown substantially. Dusing and Gardner’s ties to the city were further solidified when they when they were granted lawful residency in Ukraine, specifically registering in Kherson, earlier this year. They have come to see part of their role as being a western voice for the local population.

“Little by little we’ve attracted support, from all over the world,” said Dusing. “That has allowed us to do more and more, and … well, one thing has led to another.”

Now is a critical time, he said.

“The people of Kherson are in a very desperate way at this point,” says Synia, who wrote a column in July that was published by the NKyTribune . “It’s a matter of life and death for them, and Ben and John and our team are the only ones that can help them at this point.”

Synia chose to stay in the city after it was liberated, despite the danger, to help her people, and risks her life every day to work alongside the local Americans.

Synia says 90% of the people have been forced to flee, and most businesses are destroyed or shuttered – and so the local population was overwhelmingly dependent on state assistance. But state assistance was effectively terminated for most Khersonians in January 2024. At that point, the World Aid Runners’ FREE STORE AT THE FRONT became virtually the only source of basic assistance for tens of thousands of local residents desperately in need and at risk of being killed every day by the next-level danger. They are now on the brink of starvation, infection, and disease, a result of 20 months of chronic undersupply of life’s basic necessities.

Originally intended to serve 100-150 a month, the FREE STORE was quickly overwhelmed by the spike in demand. Dusing and Gardner were able to quickly expand the FREE STORE to provide basic food, medicines, hygiene products, and clothes to 600 residents per month. The overall need, however, is approximately 2000.

The city abruptly closed to foreigners, in April, due to the ever-increasing danger, but that didn’t effect Dusing and Gardner because they are now lawful residents.

“Things got interesting real quick,” admits Gardner.

But he and Dusing vowed to rise to the challenge.

While in the U.S., Dusing, Gardner, and Synia focused on raising funds to purchase the supplies they need in the Ukraine. Shipping supplies there just won’t work.

Dusing is happy to report that the “good people of Northern Kentucky” rose to the challenge. He is “beyond humbled, and grateful” for the support that he and Synia have been able to secure during their time here, in the span of a few months, after countless private meetings with local supporters. Sitting across the table from Synia, speaking on behalf of her people, one after another pledged – and delivered – their support.

“It’s not enough – it will never be enough,” Dusing quickly points out. “But it’s a start. And it is definitely something meaningful. I’m really proud of my hometown community, for ‘stepping up.’ The truth is, folks here are good people, who genuinely care.”

Synia, for her part, hasn’t been able to hold back her tears.

“Every $11 raised sustains one of the lives of my people for a month,” she says. “I’ve met so many wonderful people here and I am so grateful to them for saving the lives of my people they’ve already saved. On behalf of my people, the people of Kherson, Ukraine, I am … so grateful.”

Donations can be made to the FREE STORE AT THE FRONT by visiting www.worldaidrunners.org and following the link to the “donations” page.

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