Everybody knows that school-supply shopping is an August and September fundamental. Oftentimes, students decide to purchase a whole new basket of folders, notebooks, and number 2 pencils, instead of just recycling old supplies. You can typically find everything you may need and more at your local Walmart or Staples. But, for refugees and other underprivileged children, such basic materials may not be as accessible.
This past summer, over the course of a month-and-a-half, Nashoba senior Milan Siano contributed to a local fundraiser to accumulate school supplies for displaced Ukrainian children in Poland. He ended up donating over three-hundred pounds of supplies. Siano then traveled to Poland with his brother, Nashoba sophomore Nikhil Siano, and his Grandmother, who immigrated to the United States from Poland in the 1990s.
Siano is working toward achieving a Congressional Award that requires you to complete a service project, as well as an expedition or trip to somewhere that puts you out of your comfort zone. “Just giving kids a chance…can better them for the future,” Siano said. “Anything can be the difference between a quality education and a poor one. The difference could be just having the right materials to take notes or draw diagrams for a class.”
Siano interacted with numerous people during his travels to Poland, but he says the Principal he met was the most intriguing. “He majored in history in college and knew all about the history of the ancient trade routes and buildings of the town where the school was located,” Siano reflected. “He took us all over the town to see all the castles that defended the river that goods flowed through.”
The war in Ukraine has been a tragic and constant headline over a year now, and we can see its repercussions leaking into almost every corner of the world. The violence and destruction that the Ukrainian children have been exposed to is devastating and traumatic, and although Siano didn’t go to Ukraine, through his visit to Poland, he recognized how the war was impacting surrounding countries. “There were days where we were told to hide in the basement because there were rockets in our area,” he recalled.
Siano highlights the importance of helping Ukrainian children readjust to a new life: “To truly help the Ukrainian people, we should help the kids make a smoother transition to a new life, because they are the future of the world,” he stated. “They are the ones that will have to deal with the impact this war will have on their people and lives.” Ukraine has been absolutely riddled with agony and wreckage, and in the grand scheme of things, any philanthropic action will make a difference. We should all try to follow the Siano brothers’ lead and do our part!
