What was your life like before...

We lived in our hometown of Dnipro: me and my two children. We worked and enjoyed life. We lived in an apartment. Until the war came to our home. We had to leave everything behind and move to an unfamiliar city, and rent housing. Our life was divided into before and after. We live in a house with no gas, only electricity and a stove that has to be heated with firewood. We had to learn to live here, in another city where we have no acquaintances or friends. My older child started school in the new city and is studying. Over time, I was found to have thyroid cancer, and I traveled to Kyiv for surgery. It was hard to accept that this had happened to me. But I must go on living, because I have two children. I must take care of them.

How does this affect your everyday life?

It is hard to accept that there is war in this day and age. My morning begins with waking up at 6 a.m., taking my hormone medication every day, Eutyrox, and waking my child for school. I take my child to school while the younger one sleeps. We get to school on a scooter.

Your strengths and dreams

What helps me not to give up is the hope that the war will finally end soon, and there will be peace in our country. Also the care for my children, because besides me there is no one to look after them. The children are my everything.

What exactly will the funds be used for?

The funds are needed to support myself and my children. To buy food, clothes for the children and medicine, because in autumn and winter the children often get sick. To constantly buy my hormone medication and go for check-ups every three months, because of the disability I received after the operation to remove my thyroid gland. To buy firewood, because the stove has to be heated with wood to keep the house warm, and to pay for utilities as well as rent. We will be grateful for any help. We believe there are people who care about the fate of our family and who can help us in such a difficult time. The state does not pay us IDP benefits because our city is not considered to be in the combat zone. Yet it is impossible to live there, it is very dangerous, with constant explosions and alarms. The children hardly study there because they are in shelters. Here my child can study at school and socialize with other children.