Olivia Mann '23 Helping U.S. and Ukrainian Teens Connect

As war rages in Ukraine, MBS junior Olivia Mann ’23 has created a virtual penpal program, Global Connections With Friends, to help teens from the U.S. and Ukraine connect and form friendships. 

The idea was born after Olivia attended a BBYO leadership convention in Baltimore in late February. As part of a bus excursion to Washington D.C. during the conference, she met a girl from Ukraine named Sonya, and they immediately hit it off.  “I had an extra seat next to me and we ended up talking the whole time,” she said. 

Sonya returned home after the conference and just three days later, Russia invaded Ukraine. “It gave me a personal connection to the war. The stories that she’s told me really had an impact on me,” said Olivia. “We’ve become really close friends – even just through texting and Instagram messenger.”

To escape her besieged city of Odessa, 18 year-old Sonya took multiple flights and traveled through several countries to get to a friend’s house in the country of Georgia, where she now lives. Her mother and sister are currently living in a refugee camp in Germany while her father remains in Ukraine to fight in the war. “I kept offering for Sonya to stay with me and my family, but she told me that she doesn’t need the help,” said Olivia. “She told me the best way to help was to donate.”

So, with assistance from her mother, Olivia organized a fundraiser through the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest, and she posted the appeal to her Instagram account. To her surprise, the post went viral. Olivia not only raised thousands of dollars, but she also caught the attention of the BBYO, which shared her story on their social media accounts and asked her to participate in a Zoom call with their CEO, shareholders, and a few Ukrainian teens. 

Through the Zoom call, Olivia met another Ukrainian girl – Dasha – whom she connected with immediately.  “I began messaging with her after the Zoom call and was shocked to hear her story,” said Olivia. “She and her parents are still living in an apartment in Kharkiv — a city under heavy attack because it’s right on the border with Russia.  Because of the chaos, she can no longer go to school and has only been able to leave her apartment a few times since the war started.  She’ll tell me things like, ‘This afternoon the bombs were quieter so my mom let me see a friend.’ It’s so sad.”

From the beginning of their correspondence, Dasha has told Olivia how much their friendship means to her. “She says that our friendship comforts her and provides a connection to the outside world,” said Olivia. “That’s when it occurred to me that there must be thousands of kids in a similar situation, who could benefit from this type of friendship.”

To help Ukrainian and U.S. teens connect, Olivia started the Global Connections With Friends initiative in early April and she currently has more than 150 followers on the program’s Instagram page. She has been working with Active Jewish Teens (AJT) — a program that partners with BBYO — to secure a list of Ukrainian teens who are interested in participating, and she currently has 25 American teens who have expressed interest as well.

“I know that many kids feel like they can’t make a difference with what going on in the world right now and they feel kind of powerless, which is honestly how I felt about a month ago,” said Olivia. “But I was proven wrong when my fundraiser went viral and I was given all of these opportunities to help.” 

For more information about the Global Connections With Friends program, visit @globalconnectionswithfriends on Instagram.