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Transcript/ScriptUSAGM SHARE((PLAYBOOK SLUG: Ukraine US Volunteer – KukurikaHEADLINE: US Volunteer makes metal staple for Ukraine’s militaryTEASER:PUBLISHED AT: 9/9/2024BYLINE: Tetiana KukurikaCONTRIBUTOR:DATELINE: Vinnytsia Region, UkraineVIDEOGRAPHER: Sergiy RybchynskiVIDEO EDITOR: Vitaliy Hrychanyuk, Anna RiceSCRIPT EDITORS: KEnochs, BaragonaVIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA, Story HunterPLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO _X_TRT: 3:13VID APPROVED BY: KETYPE: TVPKGEDITOR NOTES:))Video reference:))((INTRO))[[American Benjamin Hoerber says he has discovered his calling helping Ukraine’s military.He initially helped transport humanitarian aid. Now he also volunteers at a forge, makingsupports for trenches. Tetiana Kukurika has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.]]((NARRATION))((NATS))((NARRATION))33-year-old American Ben Hoerber came to((Mandatory courtesy: Ben Hoerber))Ukraine in the summer of 2023.((End courtesy))((Benjamin Hoerber, US Volunteer)) ((UKR))“My mom died, so it was just my dad and me. I told him I’m going to Ukraine, and he saidhe knew he couldn’t change my mind if I was set on it…”((NARRATION))((Mandatory courtesy: Ben Hoerber))Hoerber was a culture and history professor at the University of North Georgia, and alwaysdreamed of traveling through Europe. So, when the war((End courtesy))started, he shipped his car to Belgium, then to Poland – and finally, to Ukraine, where hebegan using it to deliver((Mandatory courtesy: Ben Hoerber))humanitarian aid to the Zaporizhzhia region.((NATS)) ((Ben driving and singing))((End courtesy))((NARRATION))Soon after he arrived, Hoerber joined Roman Trynos’s volunteer forge.
((NATS)) ((Ben and Roman together))((Benjamin Hoerber, US Volunteer)) ((UKR))“We make about 800 staples, yeah – per day.”((NARRATION))Staples look exactly like the small ones used to hold documents together but are muchbigger and used to build military trenches and dugouts.Roman Trynos has been a blacksmith all his life. Twenty years ago, he built a forge in hisyard.((NATS)) ((Roman working))((NARRATION))Since 2014, Trynos has been making small stoves for the Ukrainian military, and afterRussia’s invasion in 2022, he started making the staples.((Roman Trynos, Volunteer Blacksmith)) ((UKR))“There are so many requests coming in, not just to us, to many volunteer blacksmiths… It’sdifficult to fulfill them all.”((NARRATION))((Mandatory courtesy: Art Strelkov + Facebook Logo))Trynos works thanks to donations. He says he can afford to buy about a kilometer of thelong thin rods of metal called armature every week. That can((End courtesy))manufacture enough staples for between 8 and 35 dugouts.((NARRATION)) In the two and a half years since the start of the war, this little forge hassent about((Mandatory courtesy: Ben Hoerber))235,000 of the metal((End courtesy))frames to the frontlines.Hoerber helps at the forge at least three times a week and delivers((Mandatory courtesy: Ben Hoerber))humanitarian aid on other days. He also helps assemble drones and teaches English tolocals.And the more he helps, the more Ukrainian he learns.((End courtesy))((Benjamin Hoerber, US Volunteer)) ((UKR))“I’ve been in Ukraine for a year, and my Ukrainian isn’t too bad. I understand more andmore each day, I can make myself understood.”((NARRATION))((Mandatory courtesy: Ben Hoerber))In February 2024, Hoerber went to Florida to visit his father, but quickly((End courtesy))
returned to Ukraine. He says the war-torn country is where he feels happy these days.((Benjamin Hoerber, US Volunteer)) ((UKR))“I think I’ll stay even after the war is over, there will still be lots to do here. Yeah, I think I’llstay…”((Mandatory courtesy: Ben Hoerber))((For Tetiana Kukurika in the Vinnytsia Region, Ukraine, Anna Rice, VOA News))((End courtesy))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
Subtitles / Dubbing AvailableNo
NetworkVOA
Embargo DateSeptember 8, 2024 18:36 EDT
BylineTetiana Kukurika
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English, US Agency for Global Media
