ANASTASIA reaches out to people.
Success can have many faces. Sometimes success is as simple as someone opening the door and leaving the house with a bright, new thought in their head.
This is the story of Anastasia from Dnipro, who came to us last year.
Together with her husband and young son, Anastasia fled Ukraine on the very first day of the war and escaped to Poland.
Three days later, Anastasia’s husband decided to return to Ukraine. He crossed the border to join the army and defend his country, heading straight to the front line. Following a strike by Russian forces, Anastasia’s husband was the sole survivor from his entire battalion. He was badly burned, but he was alive. Anastasia was in Poland at the time, hundreds of kilometers from the front line and from her husband.
One day we were looking for someone to make decorations for Świetlica. Anastasia shyly wrote that she could try. That’s when we saw her for the first time. Shy and quiet, she immediately touched our hearts.
She confided in us that for many months she had not wanted to leave her apartment in Poland and had not even had the strength to open her mouth to speak.
When she met other women in Świetlica who understood her pain, she slowly began to open up and talk. About her husband being in the hospital. That he had already had five surgeries and is now waiting for the sixth…
Anastasia learns Polish and English with us. Her son plays with other children in our daycare while his mom studies.
She helps us with simple tasks in Świetlica. And is she just HERE. Anastasia speaks now. Świetlica was her love at first sight.
Every visit to the center is a breath of fresh air for her. It is only here that she can open up to others and be herself. She makes friends and is so grateful for the opportunity to be among people who share her emotions, are always ready to help, and advise or simply listen.
Of course, she misses her home in Ukraine and thinks about her husband.
But she knows now what she wants. And she now reaches out to people.
