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My Ukrainian friend Natasha and her children need help
My friend Natasha and her children are in a desperate situation in
Ukraine. They are sheltering in the dirty basement of a house with no
heat, bathroom or running water. Her window of opportunity to leave
the region closed as the Russians shelled the neighboring city of
Mykolaiv and she lacked the resources to get out. Now it is too
dangerous to venture out on the roads so she is sheltering in place
with her 5 and 11 year old and her father-in-law. The children sleep
on a filthy mattress while she and him sleep in chairs. The children
cry and all of them are very scared.
Update 3/6/22: I just learned that Natasha
will try to make her way to Poland starting today. Based on what I
have seen and heard, this will be an uncertain and exhausting journey
with no guaranteed outcome. She will leave with nothing so any funds
raised will support her effort to leave Ukraine and start a new life
for her and her children.
Update 3/16/22: 
After an intense journey, Natasha
and her kids safely crossed the border and are in a refugee center in
a small town in Poland. While it's safer than Ukraine, the situation
has still been very hard. The children don't really understand why
they can't go home and see their friends and everyone feels a sense of
dislocation.
After an intense journey, Natasha
and her kids safely crossed the border and are in a refugee center in
a small town in Poland. While it's safer than Ukraine, the situation
has still been very hard. The children don't really understand why
they can't go home and see their friends and everyone feels a sense of
dislocation. We are assisting in the effort to relocate her to Vienna where she may be able to attain refugee housing, along with medical support for her daughter who requires medicine and a special school.
In light of all that they are facing, I am asking for any help you
can offer. I will send all money received directly to Natasha so that
she can buy food, pay the neighbor to drive her to the store, get a
new heater warm clothes for the kids and medicine for her daughter. We
have already sent some money but anything extra might give her options
should opportunities present themselves to leave.
A little background:
I met Natasha when she was a teenager living in the Izmail
orphanage that I had visited several times and from which I tried,
unsuccessfully, to adopt a child. Every time I was in Ukraine she
helped me with translation and navigating life in Ukraine. She was
bright, studious, a hard worker and had been dealt a very tough
childhood. No one, especially a child, should have to have
experienced the hardships that she did.
Now she is 30 and life has been no kinder to her. She had her
first child at age 19 and her daughter was born with cognitive and
physical disabilities. Shortly thereafter the father left forcing
her to care and provide for her child alone. 5 years ago she had a
second child with another man who left her to live with his father,
in a small, poor rural village, while he worked, and ultimately
stayed, in Odessa.
She has tried to get work abroad but it falls through and the
opportunities are very, very limited in her region. She has been a
dishwasher, a cleaner and is now working in an orphanage. She is
stuck in a cycle of poverty which is heartbreaking since she is
intelligent, honest and hard working.
Natasha's current situtation is unimaginable to most of us. If
you feel moved to offer any help it would be greatly valued and appreciated.
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