Gift of Hope

Growing Up in the Shadow of War Nikita is nine years old, and he lives in the small Ukrainian village of Mykhailivka, where the war is not something you see on the news but something you feel in everyday life. Here, the echoes of explosions are often heard in the distance, evenings pass without electricity in darkness broken only by candles or flashlights, and air raid sirens slice through the silence to remind families that the front lines are not far away. For Nikita, this has become part of his childhood-not the childhood he would have chosen, but the only one he has known, like so many other children in Ukraine who are learning to grow up in the shadow of war. On the day when Russian aerial bombs fell on Zaporizhzhia, Nikita was standing near his yard, looking up at the sky. He heard the adults speaking in tense…

Olga, 32, and her two daughters, Sasha (almost 3) and Nastia (17), lived in Mykolayiv, Ukraine. Like most families, they woke up to the war early on February 24, 2022. Olga, her daughters, her husband, and her parents saw the horrors of the war on the first day, as Mykolayiv basically became the frontlines. Russian tanks were close to the town a few days later. Olga’s parents are older people who both have disabilities, which made it impossible for them to evacuate. They needed special transportation for that, which was impossible to find. So, the decision was made for Olga’s husband to stay at home with the parents, and for Olga to leave with the girls. They made it to the evacuation bus that went to Poland. Four days later, they were in Krakow. Nastia was a huge help to her mother and little sister in Poland, as she had…

Yulia and her two daughters, 6-year-old Anastasia and 2-year-old Emilia, fled the war from the town of Boryspil just outside of Kyiv. Yulia’s family experienced all the horrors of war in the very first hours of the Russian terrorists’ attack. Russia’s first missiles were aimed at military bases and airports. The town of Boryspil, where Yulia lived with her husband and daughters, was home to Ukraine’s primary and largest airport. No wonder it was among the very first targets on February 24. From her window, Yulia, who lived in a high-rise apartment building, could see and hear the explosions around the airport. Horror and helplessness overwhelmed her. Yulia’s little daughters started to cry, covering their ears as the explosions could be heard very close to their house. A few days later, as the Russian occupation forces proceeded to take over more and more territory in the Kyiv region, Yulia’s husband…