By Anne Levin

While more than three million Ukrainians have fled their war-ravaged country, few have made their way to the United States. The federal government has yet to say how many refugees from Ukraine it is willing to accept.

According to the website travel.state.gov, Ukrainians can be released into the United States only if they can provide the name, address, and telephone number of a sponsor who has agreed to take responsibility for them.

That was the situation with one family, which has been brought from Ukraine with help from Princeton’s Department of Human Services. Currently being housed with a family in Pennsylvania, they were able to come because their son is already here, studying on full scholarship at a local private school.

“Right now, it’s just this one Ukrainian family, from Kyiv, that we’ve encountered,” said Princeton Human Services Director Rhodalynn Jones. “They were fleeing the war. They traveled to Lviv, and then to Poland. From there, they flew to the U.S. Their son, the only English-speaking member of the family, reached out to Human Services hoping we’d be able to identify housing opportunities, because the household he is in is too crowded.”

Princeton’s Human Services Department has helped refugees in the past, most recently supporting families from Afghanistan. “We’re assisting folks when it comes to food pantries, donations of clothes, toiletries, kitchen stuff, and welfare if they’re eligible,” said Jones.

Human Services is currently working with The Jewish Center Princeton’s Interfaith Refugee Resettlement Committee, which partners with the organization Interfaith-RISE, to assist others who may pursue immigrant visas. “If individuals are interested in perhaps being a host family, or helping people to resettle, they should contact us or The Jewish Center or Interfaith-RISE,” Jones said.

According to an article published in the New York Times on March 20, the federal government announced early this month that it would extend Temporary Protected Status to Ukrainians, enabling some 30,000 people who were in the United States as of March 1 to remain legal residents for 18 months. But that doesn’t help those living in shelters, in countries close to Ukraine.

Jones said the best way to help Ukrainians is to donate Visa gift cards, which can be dropped off at the Human Services office, 1 Monument Drive. Also accepting donations are the organizations Caritas (caritas.org), the International Rescue Committee (rescue.org), and Save the Children (savethechildren.org). For more information on how to make a donation, email humanservices@princetonnj.gov or call (609) 688-2055.