CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Manolo Betancur looks at messages on his phone from a friend. They used to come to him from a bakery in Bucha, Ukraine. Lately, they have been coming from the frontlines of war there.
Betancur said the fellow baker sending the photos and updates was recently pulled from his family and from his bakery to fight a brutal conflict approaching the two-year mark.
The last time Betancur was in Ukraine, delivering donations and aid from Charlotteans, he was baking alongside that man.
“I have been seeing how we keep forgetting, how easy we forget things around the world,” Betancur said.
As the Feb. 24 anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine draws nearer, Betancur is planning another trip back. The previous journeys were tough, and he said he did not think he would return, but something changed his mind.
"There were too many tears on my shoulders and too many tough stories ... they're going to be stuck forever in my head," Betancur said. "But if I take this opportunity to do something that I know many people don't want to do ... I'm going to be waking up people again."
The United Nations reports more than 10,000 civilians have died in two years of fighting in Ukraine and more than 18,000 have been wounded.
Just like his previous two trips, Betancur said the third trip would be an opportunity to bring donations and help Ukrainians in need. During the last visits, aid from Charlotteans helped rebuild ovens in a Ukrainian bakery and secured a van to deliver bread to those in need.
Betancur still holds onto a scrap of wood that reminds him of those food delivery efforts. It is a scrap of wood from a Russian artillery box--the same type of box he and others used to carry the bread around communities in Bucha. Now, it is displayed near the front of his bakery in east Charlotte, Manolo's Bakery.
“It’s about being brave. It's about sending a message and leaving a legacy to my kids,” Betancur said. “The only thing the bad people need to do in order for them to win is good people to do nothing.”
Betancur's empathy for those suffering through war seems to come from his own past--his younger years spent in a conflicted Colombia.
“I know how tough war is,” Betancur said. “I felt war myself… I had seen the tears of my Colombian kids… and the widows and the blood. That's why I don't want anybody to see that.”
Betancur will leave for Ukraine on Feb. 18. Manolo’s Bakery is once again collecting donations for Ukrainians in person and online and dedicating some proceeds from sales of this season’s popular king cakes.
“We are on Central Avenue,” Betancur said. “This is where the sun rises. We need to bring the sunrise to Ukraine because it's going to be cold and dark there.”
His hope is that one day, the nation called the “breadbasket of Europe” will have bakers back in the kitchen once again, instead of in the trenches.
“There [are] people in need,” Betancur said. “Forget about [politics]... forget about religion. It is just about humanity. It's about bringing the dignity back to humanity.”
Contact Vanessa Ruffes at vruffes@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Watch the full interview with Manolo here: