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A personal note after 25 years from Victor and Beverly Kubik
(This letter also appears in our 2025 Calendar)
Through our many supporters and donors, LifeNets today helps people on every inhabited continent. It started very small, beginning when Bev and I moved to Indianapolis in 1996. Two immediate events took place, coupled with many right people for the right purposes to help lay the foundation for what LifeNets is today.
One event was to be sitting across the table from Dr. Maurice Frohn in the United Kingdom. He was a recognized physician whose specialty was endocrine surgery. A decade after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded and a radioactive plume spread across Europe, the unprecedented disaster had faded from the headlines. As the years passed, affected people—especially children—were forgotten.
Dr. Frohn found that many children throughout Ukraine suffered from thyroid cancer. He wanted to reach out and help them. This passion led to our three trips to Ukraine beginning in 1996—conducted at our own personal expense. There we met with a group of pediatricians headed by Dr. Vasyl Pasichnyk.
Dr. Pasichnyk was a well-known pediatrician in Chernihiv, about 45 miles east of Chernobyl. He was one of the first doctors to treat children in the catastrophe. Recognizing his important work, the city donated to him an old, run-down children’s day care center to start a clinic for children with neurological disorders. We were determined to help.
With the help of my sister Lydia Bauer, who was already working with other non-profits, we were able to procure and assemble five large container shipments to Ukraine under a U.S. State Department program. These, over several years, were sent to the newly formed “Revival” Center of Rehabilitation for Disabled Children, which opened in 1996, the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. We felt privileged to be on the ground floor of this venture.
About the same time, we saw another opportunity in Tajikistan, Central Asia, which was home to about 200 Christians living in a Muslim society. They were being persecuted by the Taliban who were now independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union. For their safety, they needed to relocate. They were able to get asylum in Kherson, Ukraine. Tragically, this one-time haven has now become a war zone in the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
In Indianapolis, we reconnected with an old friend, Michael Snyder, who was working for a marketing and public relations agency, whose clients included non-profit organizations. He was intrigued by what we were doing and suggested that we become a 501(c)(3) organization. His firm provided considerable pro bono work to get us started. Jennifer Swenson was able to help with the paperwork and we were incorporated in just a few months. In November 1999 we received our non-profit status to receive tax-exempt contributions. My sister Lydia Bauer set up an accounting system that is continued to this day by our treasurer, Cathy McClure.
In 2001 we started our very successful Developing Nations Scholarship Program. This began with visits to Guatemala and El Salvador. After seeing the poverty and lack of opportunity for young people LifeNets began the scholarship program that continues to this day and has mushroomed for students in Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Ukraine, Armenia, Brazil, the Philippines, Mexico, and several other South American countries. Since its inception we have helped with and/or provided scholarships for about 1,500 students worldwide.
In our work with the United Church of God we had the opportunity to travel to far-flung places in the world where we saw other needs in agriculture, cattle, and water. Through LifeNets we created programs to address some of these needs.
One great need LifeNets fulfills in the underdeveloped areas where we serve is providing fresh water for drinking and irrigation. We have funded and have arranged for the drilling of dozens of boreholes, mostly in Zambia, Malawi, and Ivory Coast, most of which serve the entire community.
In more recent years, we have funded many church building/community centers for international area church communities to have a dedicated and safe place in which to meet. These facilities often provide much-needed fresh water and other services, providing an example of giving to their communities.
In 2000 Indiana First Lady Judy O’Bannon asked LifeNets to help a teenage boy with his Eagle Scout project. People would donate unneeded wheelchairs to a central location that would be available to those who needed them. The project was successful, and LifeNets continued and expanded this service online. The LifeNets project subsequently was mentioned in the USA Today Life Section as well as Real Simple magazine. Judy O’Bannon featured LifeNets on her popular PBS television program Communities Building Community.
We have also helped with natural and man-made disasters by providing relief for people in Sri Lanka, Japan, the Philippines, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Ukraine. Some examples were Sri Lanka’s home and business rebuilding after the Tsunami of 2005 as well as Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,400 people around New Orleans. Other weather-related/man-made disasters that plague so much of Africa are food shortages due to drought and or flooding.
We extend heartfelt thanks to our current Board of Directors—including Cathy McClure, Mike Snyder, Don Turgeon, Libby Garrison, and Jamie Snyder (who serves as secretary), as well as others previously mentioned, for their direct personal involvement in building and sustaining the vision and operation of LifeNets. I give special thanks to Drs. John and Lilya Wagner from the Lilly Center of Philanthropy in Indianapolis for providing invaluable advice and insight to our operations.
Also, even though they are deceased, we recognize Tom Peine who was Chairman of the LifeNets Board for many years, his wife Sue Peine, and attorney Mark Rorem, as long-time board member. Each provided valuable service.
We thank Hopkins Printing in Columbus, Ohio, and Roy Waterhouse for printing free of charge a high-quality calendar for almost 20 years as well as Scott Moss, a marketing professional who has designed the calendar year after year on a pro bono basis. Thanks also goes to Robert Curry who has maintained the LifeNets blog.
There are many, many more along the way who helped realize the vision of LifeNets. You know who you are, and you have our thanks for joining us on this journey.
With grateful appreciation,
Vic and Bev Kubik
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