Jiu-Jitsu school in Montgomery County raises money to support Ukrainian affiliate

ROCKVILLE, Md. - A Montgomery County Jiu-Jitsu school with sister schools in Ukraine is raising money to help their martial arts counterparts living through war.

Some Yamasaki Academy students and instructors overseas have been injured or even killed in the war, according to the owners.

Valentin Kosenko is the head instructor at the school in Dnipro which is in Central Ukraine. He said in a Zoom call Thursday, that there had just been an air raid siren prior to the call.

"Over the last three days, the rocket shelling pretty much happens every day," Kosenko said.

Despite that, he said his city is relatively calm, and he’s even able to continue practicing jujitsu, solely to relieve stress. It’s been far worse for students and instructors living in war-torn Kharkiv and Mariupol. 

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Fernando Yamasaki said his schools in the DMV are raising money for those in Ukraine.

"We’re having amazing support through the Yamasaki community," Yamasaki said.

A student named Anna had the idea to start a GoFundMe page. "So far it’s been going really well," she said. "We’ve gotten a bunch of donations already."

As of Thursday, it’s raised over $9,000.