Kansas City nonprofit has sent more than 600,000 tourniquets to Ukraine

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ukraine claims it’s made a successful counter attack near one of its eastern cities and it’s “completely freed from Russia occupied forces.”

The news comes as people in Kansas City work to help soldiers on the front lines.

At Rightfully Sewn, a Kansas City, Missouri, nonprofit, the cycle of a pedal, needle and thread isn’t making just any fabrics or clothing — it’s making tourniquets.

A tactical mechanical tourniquet is a medical device put on to stop bleeding, similar to when someone gets their blood pressure taken.

“This one is for a very traumatic incident or injury to stop the flow of blood,” said Tyler Bennett, president and executive director of Rightfully Sewn, a subsidiary of Alphapointe.

Around the room at Rightfully Sewn, there’s about 24 seamstresses hard at work, including Taherah Hosainzada.

“This is my team,” Hosainzada said.

Most of them are refugees who carry their own stories and get to be part of a bigger one.

“I’ve been in the US almost six years,” Hosainzada said.

Hosainzada lived in war-torn Afghanistan. She might not get the title “hero” or “first responder,” but her work could save some lives in Ukraine.

“Helping people, it’s not just with money,” she said. “Helping people a different way, I can only help them this way.”

Rightfully Sewn employs and educates many refugees. They’ve sent tournaquets to military and first responders in the past.

For Ukraine, they’ve made at least 600,000 since August and they’re shipping out another 20,000 by the end of the week.

“If this actually comes out of the wrapper, it’s to save a life,” Bennett said.

It’s life-saving handiwork being done by a person whose eyes have seen similar horrors.

“I saw fighting, dying, killing — everything,” Hosainzada said.

Hosainzada might have once been a part of a country where a cycle of death and destruction was normal, but she knows here that’s not where it has to end.

“Yes,” Hosainzada said.”We are lifesavers.”

The nonprofit is looking for a couple more hands to help.

If you want to get involved, you can check out paid opportunities at Rightfully Sewn.

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