📖”You can’t take on someone else’s pain. But you can at least hold their hand, so that they are not alone in their suffering”
“It has become a beautiful tradition, from time to time, to tell about the fate of the Ukrainian refugees we meet and work with throughout the Mobile Team’s activity🚍. Today, let me share with you the story of a family from Ukraine” says Liliana – psychologist within the mobile team #MobileTeam
…It is a large, united family, with five wonderful children.👩👧👦
💬” They lived in a city in northern Ukraine, close to the border with Russia. As Anna (mother of five children) tells us, they loved their new house🏠, built with care and love. They were proud of the fact that they had done a lot with their own hands: they planted an orchard🌳, Anna’s husband built a playground and swings for the little ones🛝, they arranged rows of flowers. In the winter of 2022, they were making plans for the summer – they wanted to build a swimming pool for children… All plans were destroyed that day – February 24 – when they were woken up by sirens, explosions, gunshots and the roar from the sky ”
👩🦰Anna told me: “It is impossible to describe in words the horror and fear we went through. At first we were sitting in the basement of the house, we couldn’t go outside, it was very cold, very scary and we didn’t know at all what awaited us. The little children were crying all the time, the big ones were looking at us with big, frightened eyes. No one slept for days – we were living a nightmare.”
That is why, when the opportunity arose to leave, Anna and her family immediately decided to use it and came to Moldova. At the border, volunteers offered them accommodation in a city in northern Moldova, and they accepted on the spot. That is how I met Anna and her family, three years ago, when they first came to our meeting. Since then, a lot has changed – the children have adapted and integrated into the new environment, the younger ones go to kindergarten, the older ones study at the gymnasium. They received temporary protection in Moldova, and Anna successfully completed Romanian language courses. Her pride is that she took hairdressing courses💇♀️ and now works in a beauty salon in the city.
💭” During our conversations, Anna tells how she and her family got used to the Moldovan lifestyle, made new friends and acquaintances, but the desire to return home and longing for her homeland are always felt in her words. Many of our loved ones – neighbors, friends – who remained in Ukraine are no longer with us. They died in the first year of the war, they didn’t manage to escape. Their beloved house, built with such care, was bombed”
In private conversations👥, Anna always expresses her gratitude for our work – all these years we were among the few who offered them support and help. Anna was directed by us and received support from our colleagues from the Case Management Service.
Anna usually comes to meetings with her eldest daughter, who is already 17 years old👭. All these three years, she has listened with interest to our information sessions, and now she actively participates in the discussions, expresses her ideas and tells how she distributes information and brochures to classmates and friends.
💬Liliana – “I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the leadership of UNFPA Moldova and the Artemida Public Association for the opportunity to help and bring hope and confidence in the future to people in difficult situations. Only with the support of colleagues from AO ARTEMIDA and the careful involvement of the management team, we can provide qualified assistance to our beneficiaries every day.”
🧡We are convinced that only together, through joint, consolidated efforts, will we face all challenges.
