By: Leah Mordehai and Nellie Fouksman  

Slavic Voice 4 Ukraine, a youth-run organization founded by two high schoolers from San Francisco, recently attended the Ukraine Action Summit. This summit is a national gathering in Washington, D.C. that brings together advocates, scholars, organizers and community leaders who are shaping the global conversation around Ukraine. For us, as a fresh new youth organization, being in those rooms felt both surreal and deeply grounding. We weren’t just watching history unfold; we were and are part of a community fighting to preserve it.

Throughout the Summit, we sat in panels that broke down everything from humanitarian aid to cultural preservation. In one room, Nova Ukraine volunteers walked us through the logistics of delivering generators and medical kits to frontline towns. In another, Razom for Ukraine organizers spoke about rebuilding trauma-informed education programs for displaced students. We heard from current Ukrainian youth delegates to the United Nations, who shared how they advocate for Ukraine on the global stage while balancing school and the emotional weight of representing a country at war. Legal analysts explained how testimony from survivors is used in war-crime documentation efforts, and we met student organizers from across the country,  from Pennsylvania to Illinois to New York,  who told us how they bring Ukraine education into their own schools and districts. Every conversation felt like a moment we wanted to hold onto. People weren’t just sharing facts; they were sharing lived reality, personal stories, and the urgency behind why this work matters.

As we moved from room to room, taking in voices from so many different backgrounds, one thought kept returning: We want to bring this home. We wanted young people in San Francisco, especially those in our own Richmond District, to have access to the knowledge we were receiving in Washington. We wanted to capture the clarity, the urgency, and the human connection we felt in those conversations and turn them into something our community could learn from.

That realization is exactly what inspired our new youth-led education campaign.

Our campaign aims to make information about Ukraine accessible and meaningful for students. We created simple explainers, school workshops, class presentations, youth discussions and community-focused materials that break down Ukrainian history. From the Holodomor to modern independence,  as well as clear, student-friendly overviews of the ongoing war. These resources are built for elementary, middle and high school, so any teacher, club, or student group can use them. We want young people to feel informed, connected, and empowered, the same way we did at the Summit.

Slavic Voice 4 Ukraine began right here in San Francisco, created by students who wanted to uplift culture and build belonging. Now, with chapters across three continents and more than 10 states, we are taking what we learned in Washington and bringing it back to the place where our work started.

Summit taught us that education sparks empathy and empathy sparks action.

Our youth education campaign launched this month, and we invite local students, teachers, and community members to learn more and get involved. Together, we can bring the conversations we heard in Washington to the classrooms and communities of San Francisco.

Leah Mordehai and Nellie Fouksman can be reached at voiceslavic@gmail.com.

Learn more at https://voiceslavic.wixsite.com/the-slavic-voice.

Membership form: https://docs.google.com/forms/u/4/d/1sf8RWsQqVux1j9r9ZrfO8Lnz3KhvKM_CM8nJTynJ7GI/edit.