The war in Ukraine is so far away we don’t think that Iowa has anything to do with it.  Marshalltown has taken multiple Ukrainian families in as refugees.  This started when Bill Martin and Mike Ladehoff held a meeting to gage the community to see the interest in helping bring Ukrainians to Marshalltown.

That was Mike Ladehoff, Marshalltown City Councilman, he mentions that they also have a Facebook page you can check out.  Marshalltown United for Ukraine.  The first family of 6 came to Marshalltown about 7 weeks ago.  Mike and his team are working with North America United for Ukraine.  They have people that will match “sponsor” with what they can support.

The whole process takes about 4-7 days to vet both the refugees and sponsors.  Once they get to Iowa, the job is only beginning

Mike told me that many of the families looking for refugee are educated.  Many of the adults have college degrees, the biggest issue is the language barrier.  It is a community effort to make this happen

In total 4 families have been relocated to Marshalltown, Mike said the biggest need is money and sponsors.  Feel free to find their facebook group or reach out to Mike Ladehoff directly.

Zach Tomesch, News Reporter KFJB