‘We live with a hand stretched out’

In May 2014, the war came to us. In June, it was very scary and got tough.

We left Donetsk and first went to Sedove. Then people helped us and made some arrangements with the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation. We were brought to Novoazovsk, to Zdorovye rehabilitation centre. We stayed there two months, but then Novoazovsk was occupied too. We again turned to the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation. They helped me to hire a car and we were taken here, to Sviatohirsk, Iskra recreation centre. The Foundation was paying for our stay.

Then winter came and that place was a summer camp. So, we were offered to go to Kharkiv, but I did not want to go to Kharkiv, which is far from home. I went to Lavra [Sviatohirsk Lavra], and from Lavra I moved here on my own. In 2015, people from Debaltseve and Avdiivka were evacuated here when Debaltseve pocket [military pocket] happened. And when some places were vacated, I turned to the regional state administration and asked for help. So, my child and I were accommodated here. The Foundation still continues to support us.

We left Donetsk on 14 July 2014, just because the shellfire was so heavy. We are from Kyivskyi district [of Donetsk], virtually in the area of the airport, that is, Putylivskyi market. When Grad rocket launchers started shelling, the house was shaking, and my nervous system could not stand it. I took the child and left.

We have our own private house there. My husband and my son stayed at home because my son had a job there, and my husband's mother was paralyzed, so he could not leave. So, her [Olha daughter’s] dad [referring to her husband] is there now. Our son has left in search for some work, and my daughter and I are here.

We call each other and send photos. I used to go to Donetsk more often previously. Now my husband comes to visit us from time to time. As I need a permission to take the child out, I can't go with her, and there are very long queues to leave. Since my child is ill, I cannot keep her for several hours in those queues. That is why, my husband comes to us from time to time.

He works at Donetsk railway and that is another argument why he stays there and cannot leave from there. The housing also needs to be looked after so that nobody intrudes and steals things there.

It's hard morally. I want to go home. To my own house, to my family, to live, to develop there further. Here we live with a hand stretched out because we do not have any sources of income. Our life there was arranged more or less. My husband had a job and our son started working. I had my own small income too. But there is nothing left here.илося.

I try to suppress these emotions. I am engaged in volunteering here. I help people like us survive, adapt, get documents, find where and how to live, where they can get some aid. Despite the fact that quite a lot of time has passed, two years, people are still very confused, very disoriented. They do not understand what to do and where to go.

We used to have a family business. A couple of years before the war, we closed it down, and I opened my own charitable foundation. I started helping mothers with disabled children because many mothers are not able to go around and ask for help. It is very hard. It seems to be simple: you just come and ask. Yes, it is easy to ask for someone else, but it is very difficult to ask for yourself.

The child is 11 years old. When she was born, she began to have seizures right away. We tried some treatment, but it did not work. They sent me to Donetsk regional intensive care unit. They said that the child would not survive, but picked some medications and the kid survived. She has a complex epilepsy with several types of seizures. She is now being treated with two medications that help us contain these seizures.

When we were leaving Donetsk, there was no state aid anymore. We used to receive medicines through polyclinics. These medications are very expensive, but we received them for free. And there was simply no opportunity to buy them all the time. Therefore, I left because I understood that I would not be able to support my child there, I would not be able to buy these medicines, I would not be able to get them somewhere. And here, on this side, there is help. The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation provides assistance to disabled children. We receive our medications every three months. Thanks to this, we survive.

My daughter cannot do anything herself. She even cannot pick up a spoon or take a cup. To eat something and get dressed and undressed – that is simply not possible. That is the child is constantly in my arms. The only thing she can do without me is to get out of bed and move to some other place and sit there.

The doctors told me that, unfortunately, people had not learned how to transplant the brain. I was fighting for a long time. We visited many hospitals and many doctors. It is a brain disease that cannot be cured. However, the only thing that doctors recommend and say is that learning works only through a million repetitions of one and the same action. That is, I gradually taught her to hold a cup, but she still cannot drink. She spills everything on herself. I really hope that we will return home soon and will all be together.