Iryna is 16, she is from a tiny village near Sloviansk. She came to Lviv with a small backpack, anxiety about what to do next, and a mobile phone that contained memories, family phone numbers and photos that warmed her heart.
“I lived with my mother and grandmother in an apartment, our small village was so beautiful. Fountains, smiling people. We were all so happy before the war. I acquired my dream profession of a hairdresser, dyed my friends’ hair. I miss those days so much,” Iryna shares.
Until mid-summer, the girl, along with her mother and grandmother, hid from the shelling in the basement of a high-rise building, their food was what they grew in their small garden. With each new explosion, the fear and understanding that the child cannot be here, that one must leave, grew. The grandmother did not want to go because of her age, the mother could not leave the old woman alone, so they decided that only Iryna would be evacuated.
“I didn’t want to go, I was scared – what it’s like to go into the unknown alone, to leave my relatives and dearest people, but my mother insisted. Volunteers helped me leave. First, they brought me to Kramatorsk, from there I decided to go to Transcarpathia, I had a friend there and I went to her,” the girl recalls.
Iryna spent the summer with a friend, but the friend decided to move abroad, and the girl again faced the question: where to go next. Volunteers advised to go to Lviv.
“The train again, the road again, fear, I didn’t know what to do. When I came to Lviv, I approached the volunteers, and then everything turned out really well for me,” says Iryna.
Volunteers directed the girl to the public organization “Care in Action”.
“We spoke with Iryna immediately after her arrival in Lviv. They helped with temporary housing and understood how much she needed care and a friendly shoulder. She needed help with paperwork, and the girl also wanted to continue her studies. For this, she needed hairdressing equipment, which our organization helped to purchase. Now Iryna is studying and lives in a dormitory. We are planning for her to have a mentor, because psychological help and support is very important to her,” says Oksana Mishchenko, social worker of the NGO “Care in Action”.
Iryna also really liked her colleagues from the “Service for Children” department of Halytsky district of Lviv. The team helped the girl with the documents, and also regularly communicates with Iryna and supports her.
“We are in constant contact with Ira. We ask how she is doing, like the educational process. We understand how important it is for a child, who is all alone here, to have someone who will support and help, to whom you can turn,” says the “Service for Children” department of the Halytsky district of the city.
“I talk to my mother. Communication with her does not appear often. I am very worried about them and my grandmother, because it is so restless there. I really miss them, my home, my cat Masha,” says Iryna and adds that she plans to study and become a master of her craft – a hairdresser-colorist, and stay in Lviv.
“I fell in love with this city with all my heart. I am grateful to your Children’s Service for supporting me in everything. It’s good that there is “Care in Action” who took care of me. It is so important that I have someone to turn to in Lviv. But despite everything, I want to hug my mother so much,” says the girl.