Jordan Karlesson
Actress Mila Kunis recently pulled together a staggering $37 million for efforts to help war refugees fleeing Ukraine, where she was born.
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Kunis and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, undertook the astonishing fundraising project through Stand with Ukraine, a GoFundMe effort.
“We didn’t have a solution — so we created one,” Kunis told People.
The magazine honored Kunis as one of its People of the Year. It published the interview with her on its website on Wednesday.
The money Kunis and Kutcher raised will go to FlexPort.org and AirBnB.org. Specifically, the money will help the organizations’ efforts to provide supplies and short-term housing to millions of displaced refugees.
Mila Kunis’ Life in Ukraine
Kunis was born in 1983 in Chernivtsi when it was still part of the USSR. She moved to L.A. in 1991 at age 7.
Kunis said she relocated with her grandfather and other family members due in part to anti-Semitism and lack of opportunity. Some of her family members survived the Holocaust.
“His brother had moved to L.A. in the ‘70s,” Kunis said of her grandfather. “When my grandfather visited, he took him [to Disneyland]. It, of all places, transformed his perspective on the possibilities of the West. He came back to Russia and said, ‘We’re leaving.’”
Kunis and her family members relocated after obtaining visas for religious refugees.
Kunis boasts an extensive career in comedies and as a voice actor in Family Guy. She contributed $3 million of her own money to Stand with Ukraine.
“We can’t become desensitized,” she said. “Helping — not even asking, just doing — should be our standard norm.”
She added: “This was one of the first times I’ve ever spoken out about being philanthropic, because in this case there was no other way of getting this accomplished. When we saw [Russian President Vladimir] Putin was going after the entire country [of Ukraine], we knew a massive crisis was about to ensue.”
Kunis and her fellow People of the Year honorees — Quinta Brunson, Matthew McConaughey, and Jennifer Hudson — appear on the cover of four different editions of People’s new issue.
