PHILIPPI, W.Va. (WBOY) — The People’s Chapel Church near Philippi is helping shine the light on Ukraine’s gray zone.

New Vision Renewable Energy along with the People’s Chapel Church led 30 volunteers and 12 Ukrainian refugees in making 30 solar-powered Ray of Life solar lights Wednesday night. The solar lights will be shipped to Ukraine and given to families in rural areas that have been affected by the war by the Chaplin of Mariupol.

Local Ukrainian refugees, like Sherhii Bahdasariants, who is attending West Virginia University, were also at the event.

“It means a lot for reason that, you know, living in the U.S., I feel like I am not doing enough for people who suffer back home,” Bahdasariants said. “I don’t feel like I deserve to be here looking at how my friends are suffering back at home. I am doing all possible that I can to morally support them. I donate, but it still feels like not enough. So, doing something physical like this, assembling things and sending physical things back home, that matters a lot to me.”

Representatives of New Vision said it has worked with church groups across America to give out more than 4,000 lights in 40 countries worldwide. Since the Ukrainian war started, New Vision and its partners have been able to deliver 420 lights to people in the war-torn regions of the country where Russians have destroyed the electric infrastructure.

“Some of my friends are currently on the front lines. I lost a lot of teachers of mine, one of them from school, his name was Marco and was a very talented geography teacher, taught me a lot about the U.S.,” Bahdasariants said. “My family is privileged to live Kyiv but as you might know, currently Russians are destroying power plants. So, they have two or three hours of electricity a day and it is very taxing mentally.”

Each solar kit costs $125 to produce and deliver to the Ukrainians. Each light offers up to 1,000 lumens and up to eight hours of light each night along with cell phone charging capabilities.

In 2004, New Vision created the Ray of Life, a solar-powered lights and battery kit that is assembled by volunteers. John Prusa the inventor of the electronics, was a refugee from Czechoslovakia who settled in Philippi after fleeing the Russian occupation of his homeland in the ’70s.