- Today, on "Table For All," out of conflict, these chefs, advocates, and survivors are creating community, from an army of volunteers providing aid to Ukraine to Uyghur advocates fighting for their people, and we revel in the brilliant foods from each of these cultures.

[warm rhythmic music] [air whooshing] [air whooshing] [warm rhythmic music ending] [birds chirping] When you think of Ukraine, I bet you don't think of sunflowers, but the second largest country in Europe is known as the world's bread basket because it harvests 10% of the wheat, 13% of the barley, and 25% of the sunflower seeds we consume.

And like the harvest, these lands and these people have weathered many storms.

The fight for freedom is by no means something that began in 2022 when Russian forces invaded their country, Ukrainians have fought to defend their land and culture through centuries of invasion, war, famine, and repression.

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, a great migration of Ukrainians to the United States took place, forming communities in places like Whippany, New Jersey, where I'm headed to today.

And although they're far from their native land, the folks at the Ukrainian American Cultural Center are doing their part to help their homeland suffering from ongoing war and to preserve the culture they hold dear.

Here on the home front, you'll find the woman leading the charge to feed thousands and give back to her country, Iryna Gavrysh.

It smells delicious in here!

AKA The General.

The General!

- Good morning, good morning.

- Iryna, how are you?

- She has coordinated dozens of volunteers to make over 40,000 pierogies over two years, along with other classic Ukrainian foods.

They sell these at special events and holidays to raise funds for supplies or to send overseas.

- Pierogi is more like Polish name, Ukrainian name is vareniki.

- [Buki] Okay.

The army of vareniki warriors was mobilized, and I was ready to enlist with Iryna for basic training, - [Iryna] We prepare first filling for vareniki.

- And how does your filling compare to everyone else's?

- [Iryna] We use real ingredients, good potatoes- - Real potatoes, not that powder stuff.

- Real potatoes, correct.

- [Buki] These succulent treats are made from unleavened dough, stuffed and boiled to pillowy perfection.

It's no wonder why "vareniki" means boiled thing in Ukrainian.

Dating all the way back to ancient times, vareniki became popular in the middle ages, among peasants and royals alike, and was used as a symbol of fertility and wealth.

Now, each region of Ukraine puts their own twist on the recipe and the filling, but vareniki binds all Ukrainians together through history and culture.

Iryna showed me how her cooking cadets turn out over 2,000 vareniki a day on the assembly line.

- [Iryna] You can try.

- Listen... Alright, so it's like a little action.

- Perfect.

- Ugh, I try, I try.

- Yes, [laughing] very good.

And after that, we put potato.

You have to like little bit squeeze- - Okay.

- And fold, and you just pinch.

And very important to pinch good because if you pinch not good, when you cook them, potatoes are gonna come out.

- Uh-oh.

[laughing] - You have to push potato inside.

No, you're doing good!

- I tried, I tried.

- Okay.

- I need to work on my vareniki pinching if I hope to make it out of basic training.

Iryna gave me one more shot as she shared how she got that unique nickname.

Tell me, why do they call you "The General"?

- Well, maybe it's because you have to have someone who lead the people, and that help us make quick and good.

Look, you're doing great.

- I learned from the best.

Iryna came to the United States in 1998 in search of a better life for her family.

She made the difficult choice to leave her five and 2-year-old sons with her parents.

How hard was that to leave your kids?

- Yeah, it was a very hard time for me.

I was just not able to bring them before we got green card, but my mom really helped me.

I knew that my kids in good hands, and now we are with us.

[Iryna laughing] - How do you keep Ukraine alive for your children?

- The language is very important, and you teach your kids your traditions, your culture, even that simple food.

Ukrainian food is for us like remember who we are.

- [Buki] Iryna has lost loved ones to this war and has family members serving in the military.

Her parents still reside in Ukraine, and she says the fear remains as the war continues.

Are you worried for them?

- Of course we worry because you never know where shooting will be, where missiles gonna go, it's very dangerous in every single piece of land on Ukraine.

And every day, you are just hoping nothing will happen, but we understand that's real life in danger right now.

- If there's something you can say to all your brothers and sisters in Ukraine right now that are going through this, what would you say to them?

- Be strong and we will win this war.

- And lookit, we've been chattin' so much, we got this done.

- [laughing] Looks perfect.

- Mine are a little extra crimped 'cause I didn't want to embarrass myself and have the filling fall out.

- No, you did very good.

[low rhythmic music] - [Buki] After a quick boil, the vareniki was covered in sauteed onions and we were ready to taste if I had the stuff to make it in Iryna's army.

What do you top it with?

- All Ukrainians love sour cream, so we use that.

- I'm just gonna do just a little some of the sour cream real quick.

- Okay.

- Those potatoes, wow.

- Okay.

- Wow.

And that's why they call you The General 'cause you'll whip it into shape.

Delicious.

Vareniki is just one way the people at the community center are helping their Ukrainian comrades.

If Iryna is The General, then Roksolana Leshchuk is the admiral and the Executive Director of UACC.

And the work she and her team do plays a big role in making sure Ukraine has a fighting chance.

You all have really made it a priority to make your culture last.

What does that mean to you to be able to do that?

- It's meant a lot because when I was growing up in the Soviet Union, we couldn't learn about our history.

I remember I read historical book of history of Ukraine, which my father collect, which was actually forbidden and he would be jailed for these books.

And I remember reading this book and my tears were dropping on the pages.

I said to myself, "I'm gonna do everything what I can to make sure that if I gonna be in this situation that I can make difference for Ukraine.

I will do everything in my power that I can."

- [Buki] And Roksolana is keeping her promise.

To date, the center has shipped over $7,000,000 worth of supplies to Ukraine.

Shipping containers filled with food, medical supplies, six ambulances, and even school buses to the front lines of the war.

- This tourniquet costs only $23, but it's gonna save somebody's father, mother, child.

We've sent 30 cars for evacuation of people, and so this volunteer sent me a picture of the car and he said, "This car evacuates 1,000 soldiers," one car.

- [Buki] Roksolana receives photos and videos from the brave men and women fighting on the front lines who receive the community center's donations, but she says they send something even more valuable.

- Can you imagine that you get, in Ukraine, in the middle of the war, when you feel helpless, when you feel forgotten, imagine you get this package from the United States and some packages have picture from children, letter from individual.

And you opened this and you said, "They care."

We send hope.

This is most important which you can send- - [Buki] That passion runs deep in Roksolana and her family.

I sat down with her and her daughter Kalyna to hear about their travels to the front lines of Ukraine.

- We were taking train overnight and I woke up and train was not moving.

My sister called me from western part of Ukraine and she said, "Oh my God, what they're gonna do with you?"

Because they're bombing Kyiv and they're bombing train station, and, "How I gonna get you out?"

Kalyna woke up, I look at her and I said, "We're gonna be fine.

Trust me, it's gonna be okay."

- Did you believe her?

- I believed her, there was though a slight moment of panic.

I read all the stories when they send missiles on cities, but being there, you realize how that moment of your life can all of a sudden be taken away by a single missile.

I had fear that maybe we're not gonna make it, maybe we're not gonna make it back home.

And I understood this is what Ukrainians are living with every single day.

- Then I look at Kalyna and I said, "You understand that I'm physician, I'm trained to do what I do.

When we gonna get there and it's gonna be a lot of casualties on the street, I'm not gonna be running away because it's no place to run.

We both gonna do what I trained to do, we're gonna help people to survive."

- [Buki] Luckily, the missile strike missed the train station and thankfully there were no casualties.

Roksolana and Kalyna bravely stayed in the war zone to deliver donations to soldiers and meet with volunteers before safely returning to America.

- When we were leaving Ukraine, I felt guilty.

- Why?

- Because I was able to leave and those volunteers in Ukraine couldn't.

And when I came home, the first time that I saw my house, I completely just broke down.

My sister looked at me when I came into the house, she goes, "Why are you crying?"

I go, "I am crying because I left these people."

And I was seeing them working, they had kids, they had jobs.

And if they weren't at their job, they were doing this 24/7.

You realize how lucky we are.

There's children that have been killed that they wanted to become doctors, they wanted to become scientists, and they never can and they never will have that chance.

So it's truly a gift living in America, living in a democratic country, where you have those privileges, where you have those freedoms.

- Your mom has passed on Ukrainian pride and perseverance to you.

How do you pass it on further down the generations, how do you do that?

- I'm very involved in the Ukrainian life, I call this my second home.

And being a Scout Troop Leader, I teach the kids to not only preserve their culture and heritage, but I truly want them to become citizens that understand the importance of giving back to one's community.

And that's what I hope to pass on to the children that I work with in the youth organizations.

- [Buki] Kalyna is not only an advocate like her mother, but along with her younger sister, Uliana, is an accomplished musician.

They play a traditional Ukrainian instrument called the bandura, considered by many to be the national instrument of Ukraine.

During Soviet times, the bandura was repressed because it was a symbol of Ukrainian pride, and with this current conflict that repression continues even today.

- Today, we play for those who cannot play, and the song is about our love for the beautiful country of Ukraine.

[gentle warm music] [gentle warm music continues] [Kalyna and Uliana singing together] - Just like any harvest, there are good and bad seasons.

But after war, famine, and repression, the harvest and the people of Ukraine come back stronger, more resilient, ready to face whatever comes next, under the melody of the bandura.

What is your hope for Ukraine?

- Victory.

We hope, we believe, we know that we're gonna win.

[gentle warm music continues] [Kalyna and Uliana continue singing together] [Kalyna and Uliana continue singing together] [gentle warm music ending] - [Buki] On the other side of the world, in the Turkic region of Central Asia, there's a group of people you might have never heard of.

The Uyghurs are an ethnically and linguistically distinct Turkic group, indigenous to China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, who mostly practice Islam.

Being right in the middle of Russia, China, and Central Asia creates a melting pot of flavors that has grown in popularity stateside over the last few years.

I had to get my hands on this one-of-a-kind cuisine, so I headed back to Flushing, Queens to meet Chef Ekrem and his wife Hatima at their restaurant New Nurlan to learn how to make laghman noodles.

- This is the other three.

- Okay.

[upbeat rhythmic music] Pinch, pinch?

- Yes.

- Okay.

And then- - Here.

- Laghman noodles are hand-pulled noodles and famous Uyghur street food.

Lord, okay.

- Good?

- Sure, okay.

- [laughing] Here.

- [Buki] To pull laghman noodles takes skill, it takes finesse, and as Chef Ekrem showed me, it takes dexterity.

- Yes, good, good job.

- Ooh!

And then- Right?

- Yeah, good job.

- And then- - Good.

Good.

- Chef, this is hard.

[Chef Ekrem laughing] [laughing] This is hard to do!

Right?

- [Chef Ekrem] Yeah, perfect.

- So this is a little therapeutic though, I'm not gonna lie.

I will take this lesson- - You are not finished.

- Not finished?

- You are not finished, this order isn't finished.

- I still gotta do more?

- Yeah.

[laughing] - Oh, okay.

Chef said I'm not finished, [laughing] so I'm not finished.

Stretch?

- Yes.

[Buki grunting] No, no, no, here.

- How will that word?

- Yes, good job!

[upbeat rhythmic music continues] - More, more?

[laughing] - [Chef Ekrem] [laughing] Good.

- And we're getting our arm workout.

- Yes.

- Alright now.

- It's good.

- Good?

- Good.

- Yes!

Once we gave the noodles a good pull, Chef Ekrem worked his magic to make the sauteed vegetables and meat that top these distinct noodles.

Finished with a spiced sauce.

Thanks, Ekrem.

- There you go, laghman noodles.

Enjoy.

- Oh, thank you so much.

- Yeah, good.

Enjoy.

[Buki humming excitedly] - Oh my goodness gracious.

Mmm!

[bright rhythmic music] These noodles are beyond.

It's spicy, it's earthy.

Hats off to Chef Ekrem and his amazing wife Hatima.

This is incredible, job well done.

The growing popularity of Uyghur cuisine in America has also brought attention to the struggles these people have faced for decades.

Where it all began is muddied by time and opinion, but many say the catalyst was when China forcibly annexed East Turkestan, where many Uyghurs lived in 1949.

Since then, the Uyghurs of that region has seen their freedom, culture, and basic human rights stripped away.

And in 2021, the US State Department determined that China is committing genocide against the Uyghur people.

On the Upper East Side of Manhattan, at the famed 92nd Street Y, the disrupting Uyghur genocide conference took place.

Hosted by the Elie Wiesel Foundation, advocates, influencers, and educators united to let the world know about the plight of the Uyghur people.

I met with Elfidar Iltebir, the President of the Uyghur American Association.

Elfidar arrived in the United States in 1992 after her father, a well-known Uyghur author, saw the writing on the wall.

- First, the Chinese government arrested our artists, professors, writers, doctors, basically the backbone of our society, our nation.

And then they went county by county, men and women, young and old, just arrested Uyghurs and detained into concentration camps, prisons, forced labor camps.

And we didn't know what was going on until the camp survivors came out.

- [Buki] The Chinese Communist Party has denied reports of Uyghur labor camps existing, but satellite images and leaked documents have spread and created a global outcry against their treatment.

- What the Uyghurs are really going through inside the camps are political indoctrination, torture, rape, sterilization.

Their forced to make products to sell all around the world.

That's basically modern day slavery.

- So when we see "made in China," we should think Uyghurs.

- That's correct.

That's why it's very important to be a responsible consumer and question where the product is made.

- [Buki] Growing up as an Uyghur in the States, Elfidar felt a sense of obligation to raise awareness for her people.

- Children are not spared, they are also sent to state-run orphanages, boarding schools, and kindergartens; and being away from their family, stripped away from their language, their culture, their religion, their identity, their world basically.

- How much of China knows what's going on?

- Chinese Government is hiding the truth, so most of the Chinese citizens don't know what's really going on because of the power of the propaganda.

- [Buki] In 2020, Elfidar played a pivotal role in passing two key pieces of legislation created to help address the ongoing crisis.

- That is not enough.

The camps are still open, people are still suffering.

Many people in the world don't know the severity, the intensity of this Uyghur genocide, so we have more to do collectively.

- Is there a part of you that thinks this won't end?

- Unfortunately, yes.

Many nights, I have a hard time sleeping, I have tears listening to the stories of community members, what they're going through.

So we are not really free.

While they're imprisoning our parents, our siblings, our loved ones, they're also imprisoning our mind, our soul, here on the US soil.

So, we need to do more.

- [Buki] Elfidar and the UAA are doing more by making sure the next generation of Uyghurs hold onto their culture.

Every year, Uyghurs from all over make their way to Fairfax, Virginia to celebrate International Mother Language Day, to highlight the importance of preserving the Uyghur language to carry on their stories.

Uyghur school students put on a show, performing plays, reciting poems, and singing songs all in the Uyghur language to honor and celebrate their history.

- Chinese Government is not going to succeed eradicating us, and there is a hope that as a united voice we can be the voice of those voiceless people and take more tangible action in the future.

- [Buki] Elfidar introduced me to one of those voices speaking for the voiceless, Mihrigul Tursun, Uyghur reeducation camp survivor and the author of "Place of No Return," which is her powerful testimony of the unimaginable injustices she faced.

She sat down with me and shared where it all began, in 2015, returning to Xinjiang, China, after giving birth to triplets in Egypt.

- At that time, I was 24 years old.

I'm so excited, triplets, two boy, one girl.

So in the airport, they told me we have some question, but they say, "Give us the kids."

I cannot say no, so they take my triplets another way, they take me to another room.

They say to, "Just zip your mouth, don't ask about kids."

Another police coming from my backside, somebody taped my mouth and then put my hand backside to give me handcuff, and then put the black hood, then take me outside from airport.

When I opened my eyes, I was in the like prison question room.

- [Buki] Mihrigul says she was interrogated, tortured, and detained in a crowded prison camp.

She was eventually released, but Mihrigul's bad dream would turn into a nightmare when she learned the strongest of her triplets, Muhammad, had died under suspicious circumstances.

- I say, "Why he's passed away, what happened?"

And I am starting to like shake my body, I am screaming.

And then another police say, "Don't say anything, don't ask any question, just take your kids, go."

But then I take my hand and open the cover, it is ice, like somebody put the ice cream from freezer.

They give me his whole body, ice.

I tried to let him get up, he never opened eyes.

Just tell him, "Please, forgive me.

Say one more time, 'Mommy,' or 'I want feed you.'

Open eyes," he never opened eyes.

- [Buki] Before she could mourn the loss of her son and take care of her remaining children who were malnourished and underdeveloped, Mihrigul would be detained again and taken to another reeducation camp.

This time, the abuse would be worse than before.

- I getting psychologic and electric torture, so I cannot hear from right ear because beating a lot.

Before you go to camp, everybody taken to hospital.

So they check all organ, all blood, everything, and they have database.

- [Buki] Mihrigul and the Uyghur community believe the Chinese Government is experimenting on them and performing sterilization on Uyghur women.

- But if somebody bring medicine, "Yeah, oh, medicine coming," because they're happy because if we take medicine, we can able to drink water.

I'm sure 100% they are sterilizing because I go to here hospital check a lot, and then they say, "Sorry, you cannot have baby."

- [Buki] Mihrigul would spend a third time in a reeducation camp, this time sentenced to be executed.

But in a miraculous twist of fate, thanks to her husband, Mihrigul was able to make it out safely with her kids to the United States.

But she says the scars remain as her whole family has now been imprisoned, the consequence of her escape.

- I cannot feeling happy, it's too much for me.

They have destroyed my mind, my normal life.

- Most of this is because you are Muslim.

How did you hold on to Allah and your faith throughout all of this?

- You know, when they gave me torture, they give me understand my religion is most important.

- The torture made you believe that it was most important.

- Yes.

"We let you die, you will die; we let your live, you will live," they told me that.

Only you can save me, you will listen to me.

At that time, I was very strong, some power make me strong.

And I come from Egypt to United States, "Oh my gosh, I didn't realize this before, God really gave me a second chance."

- [Buki] And Mihrigul is using her second chance to speak up for all Uyghurs who are facing these hardships.

With her kids by her side and the memory of her lost son, Mihrigul has found a way to move forward with the mission to leave no Uyghur behind.

- I will never stop, I will never stop.

- Never stop.

- If I die one day, my son and daughter will stand up and their son and daughter will stand up, for freedom.

- [Buki] Mihrigul's story is that of David and Goliath, but Mihrigul's weapon of choice is the written word.

Mihrigul knows anything can be taken from you, but what they can't take is your voice.

[air whooshing] The world seems to be filled with conflict, wars that erupt out of thin air, problems that last for generations.

But with every problem, you'll find the solution in Iryna, Roksolana, Kalyna, Uliana, Chef Ekrem, Elfidar, and Mihrigul.

Fearless people who use their culture, food, and language to face conflict head-on with empathy, grace, and the belief that the power of the people is greater than the people in power.

[bright music] [bright music]