Helping Those in Need:Locals Travel to Assist Autistic Ukrainian Refugees

By Molly Bolan
THE KEENE SENTINEL
As Molly Pinney monitors the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, she sees an enormous need among the families of autistic children fleeing the war-torn country.

“Any lapse in services … in treatment and training for these kids results in severe regression,” Pinney, a Dublin native who now lives in Keene, said in an interview last week.

So, Pinney, who is the founder and CEO of the Global Autism Project, is leading a small group — including two other local women — to Eastern Europe later this week to help support families with autistic children.

Established about 20 years ago, Pinney’s organization works with international partners to develop resources for autistic people by working with and training local community members.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, nearly 5.5 million people have fled Ukraine, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

This week, Pinney and her wife, Aja Davis, along with Marlborough resident Alison Golden, and a fourth volunteer from Massachusetts, will be heading to Eastern Europe. They plan to stay in Poland, Romania and Slovakia to meet with parents, caregivers and educators who have fled Ukraine. The small team will learn more about the needs of autistic people in the region and plan to establish autism centers that will provide services, such as speech or occupational therapy.

For the immediate need, the Global Autism Project is collaborating with Operation White Stork — an aid initiative funded by the Ukrainian Committee Congress of America — to provide 30-day emergency housing vouchers to families with autistic children who have fled Ukraine.

Additionally, the Global Autism Project is working with Multiple, a nonprofit that leverages technology to support the autism community. That can include connecting members of the autism community to each other or to therapists, Pinney said.

Pinney recently posted in a Facebook group for Ukrainian families with autistic children, asking what resources people need. She received hundreds of responses and spent long hours passing the messages through Google Translate, she said. The requests range from housing needs to therapy services to devices and materials for parents to teach their children on their own.

Stateside, Pinney is coordinating about 25 volunteers who respond to messages from Ukrainian families and assist with translations.

While Pinney has worked with refugees and autistic children all over the world, she’s never worked with refugees during an active crisis, she said.

That, in part, is why Marlborough resident Alison Golden joined the Global Autism Projects team. Golden is a per diem nurse for Mass General Hospital in Boston and an Army Reserve veteran. In her roughly nine years in the military, Golden served two deployments in Iraq, where she primarily worked as an ICU nurse, she said. In her first deployment, she was in charge of overseeing supplies to her unit, and in the second, she worked with locals, training them in everything from simple self-care to advanced trauma treatment, she said.

“I have disaster training and a military background, so [Pinney] has asked me to go along … to kind of add that experience for her to have a better understanding of what those needs are in those kinds of situations,” Golden said.

Pinney and her team plan to stay in Eastern Europe for about a week, Pinney said.

And as she prepares to travel thousands of miles from home to further her mission, Pinney said she attributes her dedication to helping others, in part, to her Monadnock-Region upbringing.

“… You’re part of a small town and part of a small community, and if there’s anything I learned growing up in New Hampshire, it’s if your neighbor’s house is on fire, you help put it out,” Pinney said.

People interested in volunteering or donating to Global Autism Project can learn more at GlobalAutismProject.org.

Molly Bolan can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @BolanMolly.

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