Eliza's Story

Eliza, her mom, and her younger brother fled the Russian invasion of Ukraine a few months ago and are now living in Spain, leaving their father behind to stay and fight for their country. Through this very turbulent time, she was able to relocate her mother and teenage brother to a new country, find an apartment for her and her family to live in, enroll her brother in an English-speaking school so he would have an easier time learning and making friends, and enroll her mom and brother in Spanish lessons all while holding down a job to support her family. Having to leave her father behind was probably the hardest part of this abrupt change. Waking up, anxiously checking the news and her messages to see if he is still alive is a terrifying ordeal to go through, along with having her life turned upside down in such a short amount of time.

Eliza S, 22.

In the span of a month, Anastasiia’s world turned upside down. Separated from her friends, her homeland and most of her relatives, she was forced to flee her home and is now living in Poland with her mother and brother. Below, she speaks to us about navigating through work, family and relationships while adapting to ever-changing circumstances.

On the day the war began, my eyes were glued to the news. I was constantly checking to see how much of my beloved country the Russians had captured. My mother texted me at 6am, and said that she was leaving the city to come to me. Reading all of the news, I started crying and screaming, I couldn’t believe what was happening. Then I saw another message from my mother later that day: Her and some family were on their way to pick me up in Lviv. "We chose Wrocław in Poland because my parents have friends there, and they let us stay in an apartment while we looked for somewhere longer term. Much of the rest of my family are still in Ukraine."

To learn more about Anastasiia's story, click below:

https://www.rescue.org/article/anastasiias-story-life-after-fleeing-ukraine

After having to shelter in a basement for two weeks to survive heavy shelling and fighting, Irina and her family were able to flee from the violence in Ukraine. They decided that the best option for them was to try and start their life over again in Poland. Irina described to us the extremely difficult time she had adapting to the situation. The train journey out of Kharkiv was grueling, crammed into a train carriage for hours on end before finally reaching Krakow. Just like so many, Irina and her family lived a peaceful life in Ukraine before the war, which was destroyed the day the Russian invasion happened.

To learn more about Irina's story, click below.

https://www.worldjewishrelief.org/news/1356-the-stories-of-ukrainian-refugees-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel