Help Dasha, Eva and Sergei from Ukraine
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Sergei , Dasha, and 2.5 year old Eva arrived in Massachusetts in January. Like many they escaped their homeland , Ukraine, that is being ravaged by an unjust war. Sergei was injured in the war and was able to join Dasha and their daughter since he was no longer army ready. They had to leave their parents behind in Sumy, Ukraine and try and save themselves and their daughter. They have seen many atrocities that have been committed by the Russian troops. Dasha and Sergei stoped talking Russian to their daughter Eva only using Ukrainian as a language.
With help they were able to find an apartment and borrow $ to pay to move in. Sergei just started a job to be able to get some food on the table.
We are trying to help and raise $ for their rent for the year as well as a cheap car to drive Eva to preschool as they go to work. The rent is $2,000/mth ‘and the rest will be used for the car. Please spread the word so we can give a leg up to a family that want to contribute to society and feel normal again.
Their story as written by Dasha:
Many times I used to hear the phrase from other people: “life before and after”, but I did not realize its meaning. I want you to read my story simply as a story from the life of one of the millions of Ukrainian families. And God forbid please, that you never know these feelings. Our life before was wonderful! We lived happily and had everything necessary for everyday life: we traveled, drank coffee, met friends, went to bed in pajamas, went to the cinema, laughed, joked and had many different dreams and desires, there were many plans and prospects, but in one overnight everything changed... On February 24, 2022, all of Ukraine woke up from explosions, they were very loud, muffled explosions and the windows were shaking. Then, these explosions were unusual to our ear and hearing. The whistle of rockets was also not familiar, or rather, at first, we did not understand that these were rockets ... We immediately ran to the child's bedroom, woke up the baby, she was crying, I hugged her tightly to me and did not understand what to do next, the air raid alarm was already howling on the street. We already know this now and are used to its sound and roar, then it was very terrifying and we did not know that it was an air raid alert. The window showed bright flashes of explosions in the distance. My husband said: "The war has begun." Hands trembled. We started to pack our things to run somewhere down to the shelter, underground. At that time, we still did not know where the shelter was and what it was all about. We put water, a first aid kit, blankets, dry formula for the baby and cookies in large bags, quickly put on all the warm clothes and ran to the basement(underground parking). The child was crying. Eva was 1 year old. We went down to the parking lot under the house, there were already a lot of people there. The next night we slept on wooden pallets on a concrete floor with no heating. That night, when we were sleeping on pallets in the parking lot, we woke up abruptly from an explosion and shaking, the sound and jolt was strong, and somewhere very close. We did not understand what it was and whether our house remained upstairs. There was no communication in the basement, and we did not know until morning what had happened above us. It turned out that a fragment of a Russian rocket hit a neighboring house, and it was shot down above our house. It was very scary, the fighting was already going on 30 km from our house. Our parents, who live in Sumy (North of Ukraine), were already under occupation. And sometimes they had to melt snow to get water. In the morning, on the second day of the war, we decided to leave Kiev, since a large number of helicopters with troops were already flying from the left bank to capture the city center. It was already very dangerous to drive, the roads were blocked and there was a checkpoint every kilometer, the roads were partially blocked. It was scary to go up to the apartment from the parking lot, because explosions were constantly heard. We saw flying rockets and heard their whistle. We nevertheless went up to the apartment and gathered in 20 minutes - we took only warm clothes, a first aid kit, water, food for the child, money and documents. We drove very slowly, there were columns of people leaving. We went to a very remote village, we thought that it would be safer there. We went to visit relatives of our friends. Friends went with us. We were three families. 6 adults and 4 children. When we were driving to the village on February 25, a KA military plane flew over the same route, which blew up a convoy of Ukrainian military from the BUK air defense system, there was a strong fire and many people who were passing by were injured, this happened literally half an hour after we drove there. It was very scary and for the first time we did not understand whether tomorrow would come for us. We lived in 2 houses, each had two rooms. The children in the village began to get sick because the conditions were not the ones they were used to. It was very cold in the house in the morning, and very hot in the evening, as we heated the house with firewood. My husband went to the territorial defense (these are units of male volunteers who helped the military). They made fortifications, delivered food, dug trenches, took out the wounded from the battlefield). There my husband injured his knee (he had a torn meniscus, and he couldn't walk for 2 months. There were 2 courses of treatment.) A month later, explosions and fighting were already heard in our village, as the fighting was already going on 35 kilometers from us. We were very afraid, because we were on the left bank of Ukraine and there were few roads through which we could move to the right bank of the Dnieper River, closer to the border with Europe and further from hostilities. We sealed the windows and did not turn on the lights at night so that it would not be visible that people live here. A month later we decided to leave. We left very early in the morning as soon as the curfew ended. We drove for 12 hours, in peacetime the road would have taken 5 hours maximum, but since we were driving along country roads and through checkpoints, we spent almost the whole day on the road. Our daughter vomited all the way, there was a “CHILDREN” sticker on the car. I was driving as my husband couldn't drive due to a knee injury. When we arrived in a small town in Western Ukraine (Kamenets-Podilsky), we were given shelter by our friends for one night, and then we found a house where we were allowed to stay. Prices for groceries and rental housing rose very strongly, as there was a shortage, logistical routes were cut off and many were leaving and there was simply not enough housing. A month later, we began to receive good news that the Kyiv and Sumy regions were de-occupied, and everyone was then horrified about the atrocities in Bucha. It is 40 km from our house. It was terribly scary, it hurt, and I hugged my child with tears. A month later, we began to move towards the house, but we were very afraid to go to Kyiv, because at that moment everyone was talking about the use of nuclear weapons in Kyiv. We moved closer to home in the city of Berdichev. Volunteers there helped us find an apartment with a basement. It was very important. Since when there is a rocket attack, you always need to go down to the basement. Every night we slept in the hallway dressed, next to it was a bag with documents, money, a snack, a first aid kit and water. To be able to run out in a minute. They always slept in the corridor, all 11 months of the war, when we were in Ukraine. This is the 2-wall rule. If a fragment of a rocket flies and hits, then there is a high probability that you will remain alive. The first wall will collapse, and the second will remain. There were huge problems with gasoline. It just wasn't at the gas station. We stood in line for 4 hours to pour 10 liters of gasoline. They released only 10 liters, and sometimes it was not enough for everyone. At the beginning of summer, we returned home and met for the first time with our parents, who were under occupation in Sumy until the end of March. It was a joyful day. We are alive, we are at home, and we are together. We stayed at home until the end of November. My husband went through 2 rehabilitation courses with his knee, I was with the child all the time. It was scary to leave her with someone, because at any moment something could happen and there would be a rocket attack. Gradually, we got used to living in fear, hiding when we raised the alarm, sleeping dressed in the corridor and keeping the alarm suitcase at the exit. Every day we were afraid, but the fear was already habitual. Gradually, I noticed fears in my child, she was cowardly, crying and climbed into my arms when she heard a siren, she began to sleep badly at night and wake up in tears. We started to get used to living like this. The husband started looking for a job. But now it's 10/10/22, It was the birthday of our daughter Eva, she was 2 years old. We even invited guests, ordered balloons for her... but on that day, rocket attacks on the capital of Ukraine began in the morning, and the shelling lasted almost the whole day. We've been hiding all day. The enemy began bombing Ukraine's critical infrastructure. Every week there was a rocket attack. The electricity began to go out. When the light was turned off, water, heat and communication automatically disappeared. Also, the elevator did not work, and we had to go down and up to the 18th floor several times a day, carrying our daughter in our arms. When the schedule for turning off the light was: 6 hours no light, 4 hours - there is light, it was still tolerable. During these 4 hours, you cooked food, washed the child, made new supplies of cold water in bottles, called up relatives, ran to the store (we lived on the 18th floor and without an elevator it was hard to go up and down with a child, and my husband with an injured knee. Balcony became a refrigerator - we stored food there. Also, during these 4 hours we heated the apartment with a heater, as the cold set in, and the apartment cooled down quickly, and we had to be in warm jackets. But with each shelling, the electricity got worse. It was turned off for longer and longer. In the evening we lit candles and a flashlight. We began to notice that our eyesight began to deteriorate. The longest outage was 33 hours. 33 hours without light, water connection heat and the ability to cook. And we decided to leave for the sake of the child. When I said my daughter’s birthday wishes ... it was not like before - health, happiness, good luck, but it was just a wish that she would grow up, become an adult, and that a rocket or an enemy would not take her life. I really want the war to end tomorrow. I dream every day that the war will end tomorrow! I really want and wish that for you it was just my story, and that you never know what war is. Now I know for sure that our life is divided into before 2/24/22 and after 2/24/22
With help they were able to find an apartment and borrow $ to pay to move in. Sergei just started a job to be able to get some food on the table.
We are trying to help and raise $ for their rent for the year as well as a cheap car to drive Eva to preschool as they go to work. The rent is $2,000/mth ‘and the rest will be used for the car. Please spread the word so we can give a leg up to a family that want to contribute to society and feel normal again.
Their story as written by Dasha:
Many times I used to hear the phrase from other people: “life before and after”, but I did not realize its meaning. I want you to read my story simply as a story from the life of one of the millions of Ukrainian families. And God forbid please, that you never know these feelings. Our life before was wonderful! We lived happily and had everything necessary for everyday life: we traveled, drank coffee, met friends, went to bed in pajamas, went to the cinema, laughed, joked and had many different dreams and desires, there were many plans and prospects, but in one overnight everything changed... On February 24, 2022, all of Ukraine woke up from explosions, they were very loud, muffled explosions and the windows were shaking. Then, these explosions were unusual to our ear and hearing. The whistle of rockets was also not familiar, or rather, at first, we did not understand that these were rockets ... We immediately ran to the child's bedroom, woke up the baby, she was crying, I hugged her tightly to me and did not understand what to do next, the air raid alarm was already howling on the street. We already know this now and are used to its sound and roar, then it was very terrifying and we did not know that it was an air raid alert. The window showed bright flashes of explosions in the distance. My husband said: "The war has begun." Hands trembled. We started to pack our things to run somewhere down to the shelter, underground. At that time, we still did not know where the shelter was and what it was all about. We put water, a first aid kit, blankets, dry formula for the baby and cookies in large bags, quickly put on all the warm clothes and ran to the basement(underground parking). The child was crying. Eva was 1 year old. We went down to the parking lot under the house, there were already a lot of people there. The next night we slept on wooden pallets on a concrete floor with no heating. That night, when we were sleeping on pallets in the parking lot, we woke up abruptly from an explosion and shaking, the sound and jolt was strong, and somewhere very close. We did not understand what it was and whether our house remained upstairs. There was no communication in the basement, and we did not know until morning what had happened above us. It turned out that a fragment of a Russian rocket hit a neighboring house, and it was shot down above our house. It was very scary, the fighting was already going on 30 km from our house. Our parents, who live in Sumy (North of Ukraine), were already under occupation. And sometimes they had to melt snow to get water. In the morning, on the second day of the war, we decided to leave Kiev, since a large number of helicopters with troops were already flying from the left bank to capture the city center. It was already very dangerous to drive, the roads were blocked and there was a checkpoint every kilometer, the roads were partially blocked. It was scary to go up to the apartment from the parking lot, because explosions were constantly heard. We saw flying rockets and heard their whistle. We nevertheless went up to the apartment and gathered in 20 minutes - we took only warm clothes, a first aid kit, water, food for the child, money and documents. We drove very slowly, there were columns of people leaving. We went to a very remote village, we thought that it would be safer there. We went to visit relatives of our friends. Friends went with us. We were three families. 6 adults and 4 children. When we were driving to the village on February 25, a KA military plane flew over the same route, which blew up a convoy of Ukrainian military from the BUK air defense system, there was a strong fire and many people who were passing by were injured, this happened literally half an hour after we drove there. It was very scary and for the first time we did not understand whether tomorrow would come for us. We lived in 2 houses, each had two rooms. The children in the village began to get sick because the conditions were not the ones they were used to. It was very cold in the house in the morning, and very hot in the evening, as we heated the house with firewood. My husband went to the territorial defense (these are units of male volunteers who helped the military). They made fortifications, delivered food, dug trenches, took out the wounded from the battlefield). There my husband injured his knee (he had a torn meniscus, and he couldn't walk for 2 months. There were 2 courses of treatment.) A month later, explosions and fighting were already heard in our village, as the fighting was already going on 35 kilometers from us. We were very afraid, because we were on the left bank of Ukraine and there were few roads through which we could move to the right bank of the Dnieper River, closer to the border with Europe and further from hostilities. We sealed the windows and did not turn on the lights at night so that it would not be visible that people live here. A month later we decided to leave. We left very early in the morning as soon as the curfew ended. We drove for 12 hours, in peacetime the road would have taken 5 hours maximum, but since we were driving along country roads and through checkpoints, we spent almost the whole day on the road. Our daughter vomited all the way, there was a “CHILDREN” sticker on the car. I was driving as my husband couldn't drive due to a knee injury. When we arrived in a small town in Western Ukraine (Kamenets-Podilsky), we were given shelter by our friends for one night, and then we found a house where we were allowed to stay. Prices for groceries and rental housing rose very strongly, as there was a shortage, logistical routes were cut off and many were leaving and there was simply not enough housing. A month later, we began to receive good news that the Kyiv and Sumy regions were de-occupied, and everyone was then horrified about the atrocities in Bucha. It is 40 km from our house. It was terribly scary, it hurt, and I hugged my child with tears. A month later, we began to move towards the house, but we were very afraid to go to Kyiv, because at that moment everyone was talking about the use of nuclear weapons in Kyiv. We moved closer to home in the city of Berdichev. Volunteers there helped us find an apartment with a basement. It was very important. Since when there is a rocket attack, you always need to go down to the basement. Every night we slept in the hallway dressed, next to it was a bag with documents, money, a snack, a first aid kit and water. To be able to run out in a minute. They always slept in the corridor, all 11 months of the war, when we were in Ukraine. This is the 2-wall rule. If a fragment of a rocket flies and hits, then there is a high probability that you will remain alive. The first wall will collapse, and the second will remain. There were huge problems with gasoline. It just wasn't at the gas station. We stood in line for 4 hours to pour 10 liters of gasoline. They released only 10 liters, and sometimes it was not enough for everyone. At the beginning of summer, we returned home and met for the first time with our parents, who were under occupation in Sumy until the end of March. It was a joyful day. We are alive, we are at home, and we are together. We stayed at home until the end of November. My husband went through 2 rehabilitation courses with his knee, I was with the child all the time. It was scary to leave her with someone, because at any moment something could happen and there would be a rocket attack. Gradually, we got used to living in fear, hiding when we raised the alarm, sleeping dressed in the corridor and keeping the alarm suitcase at the exit. Every day we were afraid, but the fear was already habitual. Gradually, I noticed fears in my child, she was cowardly, crying and climbed into my arms when she heard a siren, she began to sleep badly at night and wake up in tears. We started to get used to living like this. The husband started looking for a job. But now it's 10/10/22, It was the birthday of our daughter Eva, she was 2 years old. We even invited guests, ordered balloons for her... but on that day, rocket attacks on the capital of Ukraine began in the morning, and the shelling lasted almost the whole day. We've been hiding all day. The enemy began bombing Ukraine's critical infrastructure. Every week there was a rocket attack. The electricity began to go out. When the light was turned off, water, heat and communication automatically disappeared. Also, the elevator did not work, and we had to go down and up to the 18th floor several times a day, carrying our daughter in our arms. When the schedule for turning off the light was: 6 hours no light, 4 hours - there is light, it was still tolerable. During these 4 hours, you cooked food, washed the child, made new supplies of cold water in bottles, called up relatives, ran to the store (we lived on the 18th floor and without an elevator it was hard to go up and down with a child, and my husband with an injured knee. Balcony became a refrigerator - we stored food there. Also, during these 4 hours we heated the apartment with a heater, as the cold set in, and the apartment cooled down quickly, and we had to be in warm jackets. But with each shelling, the electricity got worse. It was turned off for longer and longer. In the evening we lit candles and a flashlight. We began to notice that our eyesight began to deteriorate. The longest outage was 33 hours. 33 hours without light, water connection heat and the ability to cook. And we decided to leave for the sake of the child. When I said my daughter’s birthday wishes ... it was not like before - health, happiness, good luck, but it was just a wish that she would grow up, become an adult, and that a rocket or an enemy would not take her life. I really want the war to end tomorrow. I dream every day that the war will end tomorrow! I really want and wish that for you it was just my story, and that you never know what war is. Now I know for sure that our life is divided into before 2/24/22 and after 2/24/22
Organizer
Gary Lavitman
Organizer
Newton, MA