Our Story

Uliana Vladimirovna Gonzalez, Architect and Founder of Savannah Supports Ukraine, was born in Uzhgorod, a small touristic city in the Western part of Ukraine. She spent her childhood and school years in the large industrial metropolis of Dnipro City, located in the heart of Ukraine, where she graduated with a Masters in Architecture. During her career, she discovered that Ukrainian heritage urgently needed professionals qualified in historic preservation. Therefore, she moved to Poland, a leading country in dealing with architectural heritage, to obtain her PhD in Historic Preservation. It was during this time that she realized her lifelong dream to travel to the United States of America. By pure fortune, the very first city she visited in America was Savannah in Georgia. And...She fell in love with this charming and heart warming place. Today, she is lucky to call this city her Home.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, her world collapsed in one day and she felt she needed to act in order to help her Motherland where all her family and friends remain. She started a FB group and called it, Savannah Supports Ukraine, to bring awareness to the crisis in Ukraine and to guide local supporters on how they could help Ukrainians in need. The very first rally in support of Ukraine in front of the City Hall started with Uliana standing by herself, however, shortly after, a few more beautiful Souls joined the rally. SSU group rapidly expanded and gained strong encouragement among locals and city officials. Nowadays, we are grateful to have more than 380 active members. Volunteers in the SSU group are from different countries but are united by the strong will to assist Ukraine in any way possible. 
From the bottom of our hearts, we thank every single member of our community - together we are Strong!
There is a lot of work ahead for all of us but United we stand with Ukraine!