More support for Yana, Anastasia and Misha

(Photo of an excursion outside of Barcelona with me, Kerry, Jack and Emma, Yana, Nastia and Misha (turning 9), my mom and Kerry's mum)

Jan. 28, 2023

Finally a feel-good story among all of the depressing news in this world: it was exactly 10 months ago to the day that Yana, Nastia and Misha arrived in our home having fled their town in Ukraine leaving everything behind. Since then, they have become a part of our family. As I write this, Yana and Kerry are making dinner together for us all, Jack and Misha are playing legos, and Nastia is showing Emma some designs that she uses to do her home manicures.

But there is better news... they have found an apartment near us to move into on their own! They will make it work financially at the beginning using some of the remaining money many of you donated almost a year ago and what Yana has saved up from working. The Spanish government will finally start to give them a small stipend that lasts for 6 months. They could use more help, though, to set up life in a new apartment and pay for ongoing expenses, so we are reopening the GoFundMe page and ask that if you can afford to help them with 5€, 50€ or 500€, it will go a long way to feel more comfortable for this life on their own.

Once again, Troy Peden and his GoAbroad Foundation are stepping up in an incredibly generous way: They will match up to the first 3000 EUR that is donated!

Yana, Nastia and Misha have been incredibly resilient and hard-working. It’s been amazing to witness their transformation culturally and linguistically. While we communicated with them at the beginning using the ever-present Google Translate and my limited Russian, we now speak to them in Spanish and English almost exclusively and they respond in both languages!

They’ve also integrated into daily life here: Nastia ventures out skating with her friends from school, Misha plays on the school basketball team, and Yana goes to Spanish classes two evenings a week in addition to working Monday to Friday.

Thank you to everyone in advance who can help them continue to make a life here through this GoFundMe page.

We are going to miss having them here with us, but are grateful that they will still be close by.

Nothing is more local than a photo of Misha in front of the FC Barça sign!

Nastia meets one of the three kings.

A surprise visit by Troy and Mhy. (Troy is the one who helped them get out of Ukraine and into Spain)

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The original post from April 2022

The lives of Yana, Anastasia (Nastia) and Michael (Misha) were changed forever when Russia invaded Ukraine. In the blink of an eye they went from living their normal lives, to fleeing their country that they had never before left.

 

We are hosting this wonderful family at our house in Spain and ask that you may be able to help support them financially. Here is more of their story:

 

Yana, the mother of Nastia (15) and Misha, (8) made the decision to leave everything behind and find safety outside of Ukraine after hiding in their basement while bombs ravaged nearby cities. The older brother and father have stayed behind to fight.

 

Yana and her children spent 21 hours on a train packed with other families seeking refuge in Poland. There was only one seat for them so Misha took it, while Nastia sat on the floor and Yana stood. Most of the night, there were no lights in the train and no phones allowed so they would not attract attention. At one point, the train stopped for hours when an air raid siren went off and they had no idea if their train would be a target.

 

The journey to safety did not end after that train ride. They got to Lvov where a bus took them to the border with Poland but they had to wait on the street for 16 hours in the cold with limited tents for all of the thousands of families waiting to go through passport control and get over the border into Poland and hope for help.

 

Once they got across the border, they asked a volunteer how they could get to a town on the other side of Poland where a friend of the family lived. The volunteer said that they couldn't get them there because it was too far but there was a bearded man with a van who could maybe help. That bearded man is our good friend, Troy Peden. When Troy heard about the invasion, he and his son Diego flew over to Polish border with Ukraine from the US to help in any way possible. He didn't flinch when they asked him to drive them 8 hours.

 

We had told Troy that if he knew of any families that could make it to our house outside of Barcelona, we would like to host, which is how on March 28th our new Ukrainian friends ended up here with us.

 

People ask us how long we will host them for and our answer is: as long as it takes. No one knows how long the war will last so in the meantime we are doing what we can to help.

 

Despite the horrible conditions that led to this situation, it's been an incredible experience. We navigate 5 languages in the house - Ukrainian, Russian, English, Spanish and Catalan, we cook and clean together, play board games, celebrate birthdays, teach Nastia how to skate board and Misha to play basketball and football. Our kids are learning what it means to share toys, space, and their parents' attention, and the most important life lesson: when people are in need, you help. 

 

Our friends and local families have all been incredibly generous - donating clothes, money, weekly fruit and vegetable baskets delivered to our door. The city we live in offers them food from a food bank super market once every other week as well as free English and Spanish classes, and Misha has started school and Nastia will start next week. Yana is waiting to get temporary Spanish papers so she can try to find a job. 

 

Like we said, we don't know how long this will last so we would like to get the family some financial help. We think that with 100€ per week for 4 months - 1600€ - they will be able to feel more comfortable financially.

 

If you are able to give the equivalent of 5€ or 50€, every cent will go straight to the family for their needs. They will use the money to buy school supplies, medicine, transportation passes, clothes for the changing seasons, charge their phones, and other every-day essentials. 

 

Thank you so much in advance.

 

To read more about what Troy and the Goabroad Foundation are doing, click here.