Czeck Photojournalist Presents Ukrainian Atrocities
Author: MT43 News Staff Reporter
Czeck Photojournalist Presents Ukrainian Atrocities
MT43 News Staff Reporter
Photojournalist and nonprofit organizer Marketa Vorel spoke last Wednesday to a group of twenty at the Community Room. She was in Townsend by way of a long route via her trips to investigate war crimes in Ukraine.
Rancher John Ingalls had read her book “Night Train to Odessa” so he decided to see if she would come to Townsend to speak. She did.
Vorel, born in Czechoslovakia, emigrated to the United States when she was 14. She and her sister and parents escaped her home country by way of a rowboat through the Adriatic Sea, lived in a refugee camp, and then were awarded asylum by the United States government in 1984. They lived in Houston and finally ended up in Anacortes, Washington in 1985. In her early fifties, she has her own law practice, speaks perfect English and is married to a former F18 fighter pilot. Her daughter studies at the University of Montana in Missoula.
When Vorel saw the atrocities happening in Ukraine on the news, she felt compelled to do something. That was 2023. She had lived under Russian oppression, so she felt very strongly about war crimes committed by Russian soldiers. She connected with the U.S. Maidan Association, a group that investigates war crimes in Ukraine. After a year of helping with investigations, Vorel decided in 2024 to establish the Sunflower F.U.N.D. to send humanitarian aid to Ukrainian refugees. Vorel’s video presentation made three vividly horrifying points: photos of bombed-out buildings with children’s teddy bears and toys in the foreground; family photo albums lying in the ruins of bomb shelters specifically bombed to target civilian populations and most poignant, the haggard face of a farmer explaining how he plans to clear his land of anti-tank mines. As Russian armies moved out of his land, they planted anti-tank mines every 10 feet in a pattern. Interspersed they planted anti-personnel mines. What mine would not blow up, the next mine would, if stepped on, Vorel explained: “His chances of being blown up did not deter him. He was determined to replant his fields so he could help feed himself and his countrymen. ‘Girlie, what else do I have to be afraid of?’". Vorel’s statistics showed that 20 percent of agricultural land is still occupied by Russian troops, and billions of dollars of farm equipment has been destroyed by glide bombs. Vorel’s nonprofit, the Sunflower F.U.N.D raised $200,000 in 18 months with which she and her team have supplied livestock to Ukrainian farmers and built shelters and schools. “We all have a stake in this war. We are not helpless as individuals,” she said as she encouraged the group to donate. Rotarian Pat Plantenberg commented that Rotary International had contributed $ 15 million to the country. Ingalls and Plantenberg sponsored the speaker. The Sunflower F.U.N.D.’s website is https://www.sunflower-fund.org. Donations may also be sent to P.O. Box 13, Anacortes, WA 98221.
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PhotoCredit: Nancy Marks, MT43 News Photographer
Image 1 Caption: Photojournalist and nonprofit organizer Marketa Vorel at her presentation in the Library Community Room Wednesday.
Nancy Marks, MT43 News Photographer
