By Dinora | intern
Date: October 4th
Place : Patria Lukoil Temporary Shelter
Activity: Painting activities with the children of the ‘Patria Lukoil’ center.
Currently, there are more than 25 children at the Patria Lukoil shelter, which Peacewinds Korea continues to support. It looks like children quickly adapted to the new environment and having fun with their new friends, but it is difficult for adults to understand what is going on inside of them. One of non-profit international organization called ‘Corcordia Moldova’, which regularly provide activities for refugee children said, “This children understand the current situation more than we think, but they can't express it like an adult. It is difficult for them to express their inner problems in words. Especially teenagers at age of 10~15 now struggling between these two worlds, where they are neither adults nor children.”
Peace Winds distributed sketchbooks and crayons to the children at the shelter, and hold a drawing activity with them. Almost all children draw pictures using the colors of the Ukrainian flag. A girl named Maika drew a house and her father in Ukraine, and while looking at the picture with her grandmother, she whispered 'Skuchayu', which is means "I miss you" in Ukrainian.
On October Simon, cameraman of the peacewinds team, had a chance to interview a family from Odessa. He documents the lives of the refugees in general and also he partly lived in the shelter. There is what Simon told us.
“When I was filming at the shelter one kid approached me. I opened translation app and gave the phone to the child. A little later a sentence popped up on the app, 'Would you like some hot chocolate?'. In the child's hand was a paper cup of hot chocolate which was distributing in the shelter. I said ”Dyakuyu“ which means ”thank you“ in Ukrainian, and received the hot chocolate, she smiled shyly and ran away.
Her name is Alina, and she is a 9-year-old child who has fled with her mother from Odessa. I arrived at the shelter on 5th of October and was able to hear from Alina's mother about the current situation in Odessa and the day of evacuation.
Tanya (45 years old, Alina’s mother) said “I really didn't want to leave my home, Missiles flew over my head and I realized for the first time that it is war. There have been intermittent attacks since February, right after the war broke out, but the attacks were stopped by Ukrainian forces. However, on October 1, things took a sharp turn for the worse. There was a military base near my house, and a missile fell to it. It was about a kilometer from our house. It was an explosion with a tremendous sound and it almost shook our house”. Tanya(Alina’s mother) showed me the video she took that day. A reddened night sky and a dull impact sound are in the video. “I decided I had to leave quickly,” said Tanya when we were watching the video together.
Alina's two older brothers (both adults) and her father are now defending their hometown. And her dog are also waiting for her in Odessa. Alina's mother said "Even though we keep in touch every day, worries about them and uncertainty about the future never leave my mind." I asked “What do you miss the most?”, Tanya said, “I want to go home,” and Alina said “peace.” Then her mother added “Yes, I really miss my peaceful home."
Almost everyone hesitate to go to an evacuation center even if war breaks out. It is not easy to make a decision to leave the country and live as a refugee who don’t know when they will be able to return to hometown.
PeacewindsKorea
By Dinora | Intern
By Dinora | intern
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