Cash assistance covers displaced family's basic needs and daughter's urgent surgery

“My parents’ apartment burned down. Our city is gone and in ruins,” shares Yulia Fedorova, 34, a mother of two from Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, who has already experienced two wars and several displacements.

The financial support from World Vision’s local partners Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA) allows her to cover her daughter’s medical expenses. The little girl needs urgent surgery since she suffers from several chronic diseases.

“We need to pay for rent. My salary and social assistance cover only monthly food and medicine,” says Yulia.

Her daughter, Angelina, has had gray hair from an early age due to poliosis, a condition that results from a lack of or reduction of melanin. The condition is often brought on by being exposed to stressful situations for an extended length of time.

Angelina, whose half-life has been spent in wartime, doesn’t know what living in a peaceful environment looks like. She runs for cover every time she hears the sound of an aircraft taking off.

It was difficult, especially when I experienced a miscarriage. We dreamed that our children would have a peaceful life, a loving home with their own rooms.

Yulia’s family experienced the loss of their home twice. The first time was in 2014 when conflict erupted in their hometown of Donetsk. They then moved to the nearby city of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast, where they had to start rebuilding their lives from scratch.

The one dream that the family had was to buy a flat, to build and have a place that they could call home.

“We worked for eight years. While I worked multiple shifts to pay for living expenses, the older child looked after the younger one,” shares Yulia.

“It was difficult, especially when I experienced a miscarriage. We dreamed that our children would have a peaceful life, a loving home with their own rooms,” she adds.

With much delight, the family welcomed in the New Year of 2022 in their much-desired apartment and exchanged wishes for many more happy years to come. But just within a month, the colorful walls of their cozy apartment were replaced by the cold gray basement walls saturated with the smell of mold and fear.

When a missile hit the upper floor of the residential building where Yulia’s parents lived, the family decided to leave the city.

They came to Dnipropetrovsk Oblast only with one bag – a few things crammed hurriedly into a small suitcase.

Currently, Yulia and her two children are starting life from scratch for the third time, while her husband remains in Donetsk Oblast where he works.

Now every day of Yulia’s life is spent between the dim walls of the hospital. “I am not planning anything anymore because it is very scary,” she says.

“I’m trying to hold on to hope. I dream of peace,” she goes on.

Yulia and her children received cash assistance in the frame of the project supported by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), in partnership with ACTED Ukraine and the Ukrainian Response Consortium.

Through World Vision Ukraine Crisis Response, over 1,6 million people in Ukraine have been assisted with basic needs support, mental health care, protection, education, cash and vouchers, and livelihood programs.

Story and photos by Tetiana Dolhiier, Communications Officer