Help Ukrainian Refugees start a new life in the US

Hi, My name is Pat Curley. My wife and I have decided to step up and help these two young ladies from Odessa Ukraine move to North Carolina and start a new life. I am a retired US Marine and Educator, my wife is planning on retiring from teaching this summer. We do not have a lot of money, but we are offering a place in our home and our resources to help Kateryna and Daria Zherdetska, escape the war in Ukraine and start a new life in the US. We hope to raise funds through the generosity of others to help them by purchasing plane tickets from Ireland to the US, purchasing a used car, and providing some to start saving so that they can cover the costs of starting a new life.

Here is Kateryna's story:

I will never forget that morning of 24 February in 2022.

Just the previous night I was having fun with my friend, watching movies and laughing. We were planning to go to the city centre the next day, meet other friends and maybe go to the seaside, but…

I woke up quite late and the first thing I heard was my phone ringing like crazy. I grabbed it and saw a huge amount of missed calls from my family and a bunch of messages. I opened the first one of them and saw the text: “Kate, go home now. The war started”. I was confused cause… War? Really? It’s a joke of what? How can this happen? I opened the news and all inside me just froze in a moment. Kyiv was under siege, Russian army was bombing our cities and their ships were near Odesa. I could not believe it was happening. My mind was empty and frightened.

I left my friend’s house and went home immediately. The streets were almost empty. Only a few cars around. All people are so silent. The city looked like a ghost.

All my family was at home already. We were waiting for the news. The next day we saw a warship right near us and heard the shooting. Russians were attacking Odesa’s port. Evacuation from Kyiv was impossible. And then they started bombing the South. We were living in a tall old building and even if the bombs were falling somewhere else, our house was shaking and windows were tingling. Every time the alarm was on we were going to the corridor, waited there and hoped everything would be alright.

And then we saw smoke. It was the first time the Russian army was defeated by Ukraine. We realized that there is hope. Maybe… maybe this war will not last for that long? Maybe it will end in a few months?

But we were wrong. That war was not going to end in the near future. And then our parents agreed that we need to leave. Russians were very close. We saw what they did near Kyiv and decided not to wait for them. We packed a bag for each of us and left. My father didn’t want to cross the border. He said that he would rather die here, defending his country than live somewhere else. Our mother stayed with him. So at the end of the day, it was only me and my little sister, who crossed the border.

We stayed in Moldova for a month, hoping that we will be able to go home soon. But the war lasted and lasted. Our money was going to an end and our parents were not able to help us. At that moment I realized that if we want to live we need to move along. We lost our home, we lost our opportunities. I lost my job and my sister, who just turned eighteen even didn’t get a college degree. We were alone in a big unknown world without any plan of what to do.

After careful thinking, I decided to move to Ireland cause the only foreign language I was able to speak was English and Ireland was the only country in the EU speaking that language. The journey wasn’t easy. We were tired, frustrated and lost. I was trying to be optimistic and smile more because I was the only adult who my sister could rely on. I had no right to be weak.

After we came to Ireland we discovered that they had an accommodation crisis for quite a long time and were not able to handle all the refugees. After a long wait, we got a place in a refugee dormitory located near a city and stayed there. I found a job, earned some money for living expenses and was trying my best to find a way for us to live our peaceful life. But all I was able to do there was just wait. We felt that our lives were paused. No ability to live normally in Ireland, no ability to come back home. Waiting was all we had.

And then I just said to myself… Stop. You can’t wait forever. This is your life. You will not have another one. You already lost so many years before, you lost so many opportunities. Don’t lose your future. Don’t lose your sister’s life.

The only country which was able to give us that opportunity and that feeling of safety were the US. So I started to search. We didn’t have a huge amount of money or many ways to move, so I was searching for any programs, grants and any opportunity I could get. U4U became that opportunity. To be honest I didn’t believe that someone would be that kind to welcome a stranger in their house. But I met Patrick’s family and they were so ready to help us, they gave us so much support that we never expected… This made me realize that there still is kindness. And there is still hope. Hope for us and for other people who need a helping hand. Hope to make a change that can save lives and give an opportunity to live peacefully.