DENVER — The owners of Denver-based Dazbog Coffee will donate portions of the upcoming week's proceeds to help victims in Ukraine.
Dazbog co-founder Leo Yuffa and his family fled Russia in 1979. His parents are from the old Soviet bloc. His father was born in Ukraine. At age 9, Yuffa and his family left Russia to come to America.
"We fled because of the oppressive government with nothing in hand, and came here with no language and very little," he said.
"I was 9 years old when we fled, and it’s very scary," he said. You don’t know where you’re going to go. You’re sleeping on the floor of rooms hoping to get to where your parents tell you that you’re going to go. It’s just a leap of faith that you’re going to somewhere that is going to be better than where you are."
Yuffa and his family landed in Colorado about two and a half months after leaving Russia. He told 9NEWS the videos from Ukraine lately are a reminder of what he left behind.
"My heart is with the people of Russia and at the same time Ukraine, and especially Ukraine right now, and it bleeds every time I see and read what's going on there," he said. "I think about it every day -- how grateful I am, what my parents sacrificed to get us here."
Starting Monday and through March 6, Dazbog will donate 5% of all in-store beverage sales as well as $3 per bag of their Svoboda "Freedom” Blend. The money raised will go toward the Ukrainian relief efforts led by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
"People are losing everything, including their lives, their livelihoods, their families, everything they’ve lived for," Yuffa said. "I keep coming back to the word 'grateful' and hopeful, and I hope that for the Ukrainian people that they get to the other side."
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