ATLANTA — Thousands of people are trying to flee from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and 15 of them are being guided by a woman right here in Atlanta.
Hope Now Ministries has worked with an orphanage in Ukraine for decades and is now trying to get those young people out of the country.
Cyndee Knight has a map of Ukraine up on her laptop– a pen and paper to keep a running list of the routes that will work best for escape.
"Here's the border crossing right here, here's the line for Romania, Ukraine and Romania, so this is one of the border crossings," Knight said.
She's trying to evacuate 15 young women and two children who were orphans in Ukraine.
"I said, are you really gone, did you really go? You have to prove it to me. So they sent me a video of what it's like in the van," she said.
Knight started traveling to Ukraine 16 years ago on mission trips to support the orphanages there. Knight is the President of Hope Now Ministries and founded programs for kids who age out of the orphanages at 14 in that country.
"Children who live in an orphanage, they have been abandoned, not just once, but many times over their life. and now, in a way, they're being abandoned as well," she said.
It's the girls from that program she founded that she's trying to get out of the country now.
"They spent the first 24 hours together in a subway. There's no food, there's no toilets, there's no heat, nothing," she said.
They're traveling in two vans the ministry brought, and staying at local churches as they try and escape the war.
"She's squinting because you can't have any lights on after the lights go down because you can't have anyone making a location," she said.
Her ministry could only evacuate the girls, because the boys may be conscripted into the army to fight.
But the young women fleeing in her church vans are facing a fight of their own.
"They're wondering at any second if a missile is going to hit their car. And they don't have enough food, and they don't have enough water. Everything is waiting for them on the other side of the border. But they have a very long journey to get there, and then an almost insurmountable journey to get through the border," Knight said.
She's made plans with women in Romania to pick the girls up at the border if they can make it that far.
She's coordinating with volunteers in Ireland, Norway, Sweden and France to help them when they do get through.
But until then, she's waiting by her phone.
"The most important thing is when I get messages from Ukraine. (tears) just, thanking me for what I am trying to do. And there's a lot we can do here from the states," she said.
Knight should know by tomorrow afternoon if her girls made it to the border safely.
