April 2023 Barbara

The following is a report from co-worker Barbara about one family that she has been helping for a number of years with humanitarian aid and medicines.

Like thousands of children in Ukraine, eight year old Damir's life has been affected by the war in a big way. On February 22, 2022, Damir and his mother went from our village to Orlyanka to help his grandmother, who had broken both her legs.  Unfortunately, the invasion started soon after and the family was stuck there.  The war quickly got very real when the village was shelled very hard. Damir spent several days in the basement. After a while they were able to find a man to take them to Ukrainian-controlled territory and they returned home with the grandmother. After spending some time at home, the mother (Olga) decided to evacuate to another country but the grandmother refused to go with them and later returned to the occupied territory. After some time Olga and Damir returned to our village explaining that she found it very hard to live in a foreign country, where you know no one and no one needs you. 

This is when Damir started having problems with his health. He is very worried about his grandmother and seems to be mentally traumatized by what he has been through. On the surface, he doesn’t appear to be afraid of anything and has become reckless enough to climb on the roof of their house and jump off. Damir spent some time in hospital receiving psychological treatment.

Eight year old Damir