When a shell landed, we left on the next day, amid the winter, by car together with our kids. We had to sell everything at once, so that our possessions would not be stolen, and to move to the village.
We had a she-goat, which we bought especially for the kids, in order to have some milk. We had a scooter and bicycles. Although, we then sold one bicycle and others were stolen. We collected some money and borrowed some. When we were coming back there, we were giving back our debts, of course. We left. We stayed in the village for one year and two months and then came back.
My mother died five years ago, and I don’t have any other relatives. My brothers moved away every which way.
A shell fell at night. My elder children woke up themselves, yelling and screaming, while we had to grab the younger ones in our arms. We all ran out into the street. We stayed outside till the morning fearing that some shells could hit somewhere else. That is how it was.
In the morning, we took the car immediately. We asked some kind people to give us a drive and so we left. We left everything behind us then and moved away. And later we learned that our house was still intact and we returned. We do not want it to be destroyed.
It is calmer in the village, but more difficult. It is easier to survive here amid the war than there without it. It feels like a nut house there. Here you can earn at least some penny, while there it is… We have firewood and an electric oven. And we have water source in the yard.
Some power lines were damaged and we didn’t have electricity. Those people who have gas supply line are in a better position, while we made a small stove outdoor and cooked some food there. After all, we cannot stoke a stove inside the house in summer. That is how we survived until the power supply was resumed.
It is difficult. You need to have some firewood and collect some tree branches every day to make a fire. And you need to cook fast as it can start raining. That is how we cooked. We survived.
I have four kids under my care. Unemployment is the biggest problem. If there were jobs, there would be money, there would not be any problems at all, probably. There used to be jobs here before. And now it is impossible to get a job. People worked for ten, twelve years. They were fired because there was no money, nothing to pay with.
I used to work in a greenhouse in the village. I also used to work as a cleaner at school once. My husband was a loader in Luhansk in Epicentre store. And then he also worked as a loader here in local stores. Then he changed his job and started working in the greenhouse. Now, he takes up any job he finds.
We are very grateful that Rinat Akhmetov provides humanitarian aid. He does help us. He does not leave people on their own without any means for living.
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