KOSICE, Slovakia – On March 11, Kai Fusser set out on a humanitarian mission, traveling more than 5,200 miles from Orlando to Kosice in eastern Slovakia, about 50 miles from the Ukrainian border.
Fusser, who is a native of Germany, told News 6 via Zoom he has no family from Ukraine but couldn’t bear feeling helpless.
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“Thinking about it, watching the news like everybody else, saw what’s going on and really got to me. I teared up and I just couldn’t handle it anymore. I got mad, and once I got mad I knew I had to do something,” the 59-year-old personal trainer said. Fusser then began to fundraise for his mission.
“I was thinking about getting a couple, three, four thousand dollars from friends and it kind of mushroomed from there. And the willingness to help, the willingness to share, asking for help was amazing and now we’re over $50,000 now,” he said. “We are sending food across the border to a church where there is about 200 people that are staying at the church right now. Food is very, very hard to get by right now.”
His mission began in Germany, where he picked up a van that would eventually be filled with basic supplies and medicine.
“From there I drove to Salzburg, Austria to pick up my wingman, Mark, a good friend of mine, and then we drove to Slovakia, to Kosice, it’s about a 12-hour drive,” he said.
He’s documenting his journey on Facebook -- giving his followers a glimpse of the pain and suffering he’s witnessed.
“It’s very emotional, you see it in their eyes, they’re just drained, and you can tell,they don’t know quite where to go, what to do, what the future looks like. They left their loved ones behind,” Fusser said. “From the beginning, I said if it’s only one life I could change, one life -- it could save maybe one young child, I can provide a future which may not have had without what we’re doing. I think it was worth it.”
Kai has also been posting updates on his Facebook page.
He also has a GoFundMe account set up.