'It's like a horror movie and we happen to be in it': Former B.C. couple continues work in war-ravaged Ukraine

Mary Martz said it feels like she’s in a horror movie.

But the war in Ukraine that Mary and her husband, Chad, are living through is very real.

“It’s awful,” said Mary in an interview with CTV News.

“There is literally people dying from starvation. People at the side of the roads, people in apartments that are disabled and not able to flee.”

She and her husband moved to Ukraine from Chilliwack, B.C., last July as part of their work with the charity Hungry for Life.

They are living in western Ukraine, which has not be directly impacted by the violence of the Russian invasion, but they found themselves in the unique position of being able to help from inside the war-torn country.

“It’s impossible to describe the humanitarian disaster that is here, that still is here, that we’re trying to address the best that we possibly can,” Chad said.

The couple says that, along with their network of churches, they have helped more than 100,000 people with either shelter or food in the past month.

They have also helped organize volunteer drivers who are getting supplies into people in dangerous conflict zones by navigating rough fields and back roads in the hopes of avoiding Russian soldiers.

The drivers bring food and water in and then take people out.

But the Martzes say Ukraine’s enemies are now even targeting civilians lining up at food distribution centres.

“They go to get bread and the explosion, the bomb would drop there and you just see people left and right falling,” Mary said.

Hungry for Life says Canadians have donated more than $1 million to the organization in the past month to help the Martzes assist those in need.

The Martzes and supporting churches recently helped dozens of orphans and orphanage workers get out of the country and into Germany where they are now being temporarily housed.

But some of the orphans, who are now 18, had to be left behind because they are of conscription age and not allowed to leave.

“They (orphanage workers) had to make the excruciating choice and difficult decision for the betterment of the whole, and seven of the boys had to be left behind,” said Chad Martz.

“They’re being abandoned like two times. How is this OK?”

He said the teens are now separated from the only family they’ve ever known.

Meanwhile, Mary says it’s also heartbreaking to see families forced to separate.

“Mothers have to say goodbye to their 18 year old child while they’re taking two other kids out of the country and say goodbye to their husbands and it’s just horrific,” she said.

Chad calls the situation in Ukraine “very desperate. It’s hour by hour, day by day.”

"It's like a horror movie and we happen to be in it," the couple said.