For Ukrainian college students Mykola Bondarenko and Svitlana Kukharuk, life at an American university means being able to study, unlike Ukraine where electricity blackouts, air raids and explosions made it practically impossible. They are studying in the US for a year thanks to the Global Democracy Ambassador Scholarship program, spearheaded by chef José Andrés, KIND founder Daniel Lubetzky, Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, and others. They are investing in these young Ukrainians to give Ukraine the future it is fighting for, says Andrés, whose World Central Kitchen has fed thousands of Ukrainians during the Russian invasion. “We love that we have this exchange happening in the middle of a war, giving opportunity for Ukrainians, but giving opportunity to American children to learn more about other cultures” and “understand the fragility of democracy.”

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