Local doctor Danny Spencer recently visited Ukraine, using his expertise as a medical professional to bring much needed aid to the beleaguered country.

Inspired by his cousin who is fluent in Russian and had visited Ukraine over five times supplying refugee centers with aid, Spencer, who is from Pocatello, was determined to join him and assist in any way possible.

“I thought I really want to go on this trip,” Spencer said. “I’m just going to see if I can get those days off. Because there’s such a need over there. I decided in two days I had to pack everything, buy plane tickets, get a hotel and travel halfway around the world and meet with my cousin, his wife, his daughter and a few other people.”

The first stop was a refugee center in Krakow, Poland. Generally, the centers are mostly filled with women and children, with most of the men fighting in the war with Russia. The kids that resided there were giddy, anticipating Spencer and his group’s arrival, he said, adding that he arrived with small, squishable toys that were handed out to the youngsters who happily accepted the fuzzy companions.

Spencer said he immediately got to work with the organizers, recommending that they join the group during a shopping expedition. Initially humble with the essentials they were asking for, the organizers were eventually encouraged to take as much as they needed, ultimately taking five carts full of groceries back to the refugee camp. The timing could not have been more perfect, as the center’s supplies had dwindled down to the point where there was not even toilet paper.

“When we were done, the woman who I turned to and asked if she needed anything said, ‘I believe in God some days, but some days I don’t it’s just too hard. Why would he allow something like this to happen to us?’” Spencer said. “Because her husband was killed in the war, and she has no home to go to back to she thought the war was going to be over in two months and then get to go back home. She said, ‘I believe in God today’ because just yesterday we ran out of pretty much almost everything. We didn’t have any supplies, not even toilet paper. ... She pointed to the sky and said, ‘Now I noticed that God is watching over us because of angels like you.’”

Charity organizations Hope Across Borders, with which Spencer is associated, and the Reach Humanity non-profit were on site, at times working in tandem helping displaced Ukrainians. Reach Humanity is deployed in Poland to assist war ravaged Ukrainians find aid, providing refugees with not only a place to work but also donated food vouchers for them to use for quality hot meals.

Spencer’s skills as doctor were also put to use. While there wasn’t always full time to commit to helping patients, there were plenty of moments for quick and helpful evaluations. One of the first patients was a 4-year-old girl with bald patches all over her head. Her mother was hopeful for an answer, but the solution was as simple as it was sad. It was stress related. War extracts a heavy toll, sometimes more than any realize, affecting even the tiniest of humanity.

Many refugees are obviously displaced from their homes and many adolescents disclosed that some of their fathers were already fighting in the war or dead — a grim reality facing many of the families in Ukraine.

The next day, Spencer was headed to Ukraine itself, visiting an orphanage in a small town south of Ivano-Frankivsk called Nadvirna. Many of the orphans there, including around 25 of them who were between the ages of six months and 2, were there from the result of the Mariupol theater bombing, which happened in March 2022. A tragic incident that many described as a war crime, the effects of that horrible day rippled into the lives of the children who now had to face the raw realities of life without their parents.

Hope was always around the corner, with more grocery store visits and supplies given out to these sites that were desperate for aid. Not only was aid provided in the sense of physical needs and the basics of everyday life, but from the emotional side, too. A hug, a few words of encouragement and letting people know that someone cared for them was healing for many of them, Spencer said.

Lviv, Ukraine, was also a stop on Spencer’s journey. Stopping at a local LDS church, which was also being used as a small refugee site, Spencer dropped off medical supplies that were being taken to the war-stricken frontlines while also assembling more aid which could be distributed to other areas. One such place was an old defunct Olympic training site that had been repurposed as a refugee center.

“That one was kind of tough to watch because in the big gymnasium, there were just 100 beds right next to each other,” Spencer said. “There was no space. People had dogs and cats, their pets. Especially the older people that were there, the senior citizens, they were just sitting on the edge of the bed, staring off into space not knowing what’s going on or what to do because their whole lives they have just known (their) Ukrainian city. When they would describe their city, their eyes would light up and they would talk about the flowers and the exotic animals and the watermelon fields.”

Unfortunately for most, the cities from which many came from and the small towns they once occupied were often laid to waste. The once famous and beautiful watermelon fields were devastated by events like the destruction of the Kakhovka dam by Russian forces, which was breached in June 2023.

One of the refugee camps Spencer visited in Lviv primarily housed the elderly.

“There was probably 80 percent women and 10 percent men, and they’re all in their 70s, 80s, maybe older,” Spencer said. “Some of them had casts or a splint on their arm. Some of them had black eyes still. These were victims of the towns that were on the frontline where after they got their medical care, they came to this refugee center. You actually saw the damage that was done, and it was really common for one person to say that they were the only ones that survived. That was really hard and one by one that’s when they told their stories about where they were from, about their cities about what had happened when the Russians came.”

One of the elderly refugees remarked on someone they knew who owned an animal sanctuary. When the Russians invaded, the rare creatures of the sanctuary were killed, soldiers posing with their dead bodies in a flagrant display of disrespect to the innocent exotic animals.

Thankfully for every act of ugliness, kindness was returned to many of the disparaged masses of Ukraine. For every site visited by Spencer aid was given, patients were evaluated and hope was restored in the hearts of those so personally affected by war and loss.

At one point, 500 bags of groceries that could last up to a week were portioned out to an assembly line of volunteers constructing parcels of essentials. The line grew and grew, with the lion’s share of participants being the displaced elderly of Ukraine. As the supplies grew thin, the seniors began to argue in desperation, attempting to secure the assistance they so desperately needed. Tears filled Spencer’s eyes as the gravity of their despair became wholly apparent. So much was given and there is still so much more that can be done to help.

Over 6 million Ukrainian refugees have fled across Europe and another 8 million have been displaced within the country. The Russian invasion has caused the worst refugee crisis since World War II. While there is hope from altruistic organizations and the dedicated support of volunteers within Europe and across the globe, much like the aid provided by Spencer, more help is needed.

For Spencer, who leapt at the opportunity to assist the Ukrainian refugees, there is much more work to be done. It is his hope for his next visit that he can be on the front lines where he is needed most, where the forces resisting Russia’s advancement are in need of not only his work as a doctor, but would benefit from the warmth and compassion he exudes.