STARKVILLE — Growing up in Lowndes County, Rodney Mast never expected to become a voice from across the world for Ukrainian refugees.
“I’m just a farmer from Mississippi,” Mast said. “I don’t have any background in this, but we’ve been involved with Ukraine for years, with orphans. In 2019, we adopted three boys from Ukraine, and that’s been a real blessing to us and our family. … Never in my life did I think a farm boy from Lowndes County, Mississippi, would have contact with the U.S. ambassador in Warsaw (Poland).”
Poland has been on the front line for taking Ukrainian refugees since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Mast noted.
Mast is now the co-founder and president of Compassion+Hope, a nonprofit designed to help with sponsoring Ukrainian refugees in the United States, presented his story to the Starkville Rotary Club on Monday.
Mast originally became involved with Ukraine through International Host Connection in 2018. This program places Ukrainian orphans with American families for a few weeks during the summer, when the children are out of school. After Mast saw his friends participate in the program, he decided to try it himself, and had success.
In 2019, Mast decided to expand his family permanently, going from four children to seven. He traveled to Ukraine, where he adopted his three sons, Jonathan, Timothy and James. His boys inspired him to become even more involved in Ukrainian advocacy and prompted him to become the treasurer of IHC.
But when the Russo-Ukrainian War began in 2022, International Host Connection could not continue its mission, as the country was thrown into turmoil and freedom to cross the borders became uncertain. Mast was forced to pivot.
“I was heavily involved before the war with International Host Connection, which is an orphan ministry,” Mast said. “We work with a lot of orphans inside of Ukraine and that was our sole focus. And when we got involved with the refugee side, that’s where Compassion+Hope came from.”
Mast founded Compassion+Hope earlier this year. The program pairs Ukrainian families looking to come to the United States with American sponsors.
These sponsors come in different forms. Some can be what Mast calls “paper sponsors,” who help with things like funding and paperwork through the Uniting for Ukraine program with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
But these sponsorships can go beyond money. Compassion+Hope sponsors often interact with their paired Ukrainian family to help find housing, jobs, schools, shopping, phones, vehicles, travel and more.
Mast said this is often a more personal connection than a typical “sponsorship” program, as Americans become friends with refugee families who are starting over in their new country.
“It’s another chance at life,” Mast told The Dispatch. “… One family pops into my mind. Thirty minutes after bombs started falling, they left. And their home is destroyed today. They have nothing to go back to, and they don’t want to go back. They started over.”
Compassion+Hope has helped more than 100 Ukrainian families come to the United States in different capacities, with more than a dozen placed in the Golden Triangle. Mast said at least eight of those families are located in Starkville.
This is due to Mast’s personal connection to the area but also to other cultural factors he takes into consideration while assisting families in need.
“Starkville has really been good because it’s small-town enough that people want to help, but there are enough international people here that it has that international feel,” Mast said. “The community is used to people not always speaking English. … If I steer people in a certain direction, I steer them here.”
Mast said he hopes the number keeps growing, as sponsors continue to help Ukrainian immigrants to find jobs and stability in a new country.
For more information about Compassion+Hope, email [email protected].
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 48 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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