Life stories
“We used to have a life there. And now it has been taken away from us”
These words from Ms Inna (name changed) capture the essence of all three stories we are sharing today. Inna is 70 years old. A few months ago, she was forced to leave her home in a small village near Synelnykove, where she had lived for…
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Understanding Her Son to Help Others: The Story of Nataliia Ivashchenko from…
A mother of a child with special needs from Poltava found the strength not only to accept her son's diagnosis but also to help other families. The story of Nataliia and Yevhen — in the "Step Forward" project, which creates a barrier-free…
Read more«We lost more than just our home because of the war. Our roots were taken from…
Participants in the “Family to Family” project, a family of internally displaced persons from Mariupol, talk about faith, the search for meaning, and “grounding” as a source of salvation in difficult times.
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7 Months in Captivity: A Family’s Story of Loss, Survival and Recovery
Olena and Andriy Marchenko are originally from Mariupol. Before the full-scale invasion, they lived there with their two sons. In 2014, their sons, Kyrylo and Mykola, decided to defend Ukraine and joined the Azov Regiment.
Read more“It is important to learn to understand and listen to one another”
Lesya and Yuriy, a married couple from the Vinnytsia region, talk about their experience at a camp for veterans’ families as part of the Ukrainian-Polish project “Family at the Center”.
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Enemy captivity took almost three years of his life: the story of Mariupol…
Thirty-five-year-old Oleksandr Hudilin is from Mariupol. Before the full-scale invasion he worked as a journalist for a local news website. Six months before 24 February 2022, he signed a contract with the Territorial Defence Forces.
Read more“This is very important for every mom: to realize that you’re not alone, that…
During the “Light Is Near” inclusive camps on resilience and empathy for families raising children with special educational needs, psychologists, an inclusion specialist, and volunteers work with both adults and children, and the program…
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Merciful Love in Action: How a Case Manager Helped a Displaced Family
Case management is a form of support built on Caritas' core value: the dignity of every human person.
Read more“I dream of creating a collection of dolls in vyshyvankas and a children’s book…
Ms. Lyubov from the Luhansk region, a participant in the “Family to Family” project, creates educational tactile books for children, sews fabric toys, and makes wreaths and original dolls. Once, creativity was just her hobby, but today it…
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Life After Loss: The Story of a Family from Pokrovsk
The war took away their home and their hometown. 1,300 kilometers away, in Boryslav in the Lviv region, the family began to rebuild their lives from scratch. The support they received through the “Family to Family” project gave them…
Read more"Only God can give hope… And I need it to raise my granddaughter and to…
The story of a Kharkiv family who, despite the war, daily shelling and air raid alarms, find the strength not to fall into despair and to cherish dreams of a joyful, peaceful future
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A taste that brings you back
Support from the “Family to Family” project helped Ms. Oksana resume her beloved work after being forced to flee occupied Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region
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