ANACORTES, Wash. — Drawings by children living in Ukrainian refugee camps line the walls of Marketa Vorel's Anacortes home.
It's a situation she's all too familiar with.
"Here are the little ragamuffins that reminded me so much of myself," Vorel said, pointing to a photo from one of the camps.
As a child, Vorel spent nine months in a refugee camp while escaping Russian oppression from her native Czechoslovakia during the Cold War.
"I would envision Russian tanks rolling back into Czechoslovakia and 'liberating us' at the point of the barrels of their tanks," Vorel said.
Now, Vorel sees those nightmares coming true for countless innocents in Ukraine.
Earlier this year, she traveled there to see the suffering for herself.
"Essentially, it was the helplessness at the fact that Ukrainians weren't getting enough help that sent me," Vorel said.
Vorel founded Sunflower F.U.N.D, a non-profit that bypasses the bureaucracies of international aid agencies and gives supplies directly to four organizations she has met with on the ground.
Among those agencies is one that counsels women and children victims of Russian sexual assault.
Some of them are teenagers bearing the children of their attackers.
"The soldiers are told they can rape and pillage," Vorel said. "Essentially, it's part of their compensation. It's a way to humiliate and subjugate the people."
Through presentations to local service groups and even setting up shop at the local farmers market Vorel has raised more than $40,000 for everything from tourniquets to 3-D printers and drones.
She also sells Ukrainian-made clothing, along with prints of the drawings made by those young refugees.
Vorel is trying to raise $12,000 for a vehicle to remove mines.
This past Sunday she was asked for funds to supply 30 combat first aid kits. They arrived in the war zone just two days later.
"The people on the ground are the ones on the front lines," Vorel said. "They know what they need from day to day. The best way to support them is to give them the funding because they're able to leverage and buy in bulk and to get it to where they need."
Vorel plans to return to Ukraine in January, leaving her family behind, once again.
An attorney, she is hoping to expand her mission into investigating war crimes.
Until then, the paintings on her walls remind her there are still children in those refugee camps.
A Ukrainian flag given to her by volunteers hangs, inspiring her to not rest until those kids are home and free again.
"It tells me that it's possible and the only thing I can do wrong is to give up," Vorel said. "I know that it helps me sleep better at night knowing I didn't just sit by and let this happen."