When my son Kolya was three, we noticed that he was lagging behind in development. We took him to see the doctors. The diagnosis was disappointing - cochlear neuritis. This is a fairly severe, deep hearing loss when a child cannot adequately hear the surrounding sounds or understand speech.

Treatment and operations are useless. You only need hearing aids for both ears. We were able to buy one pair, but Kolya hardly heard anything wearing them, so he didn't talk.

We were told that a school for the deaf and dumb was the best option for him. However, little by little, Kolya studied in a rehabilitation center, learned to read, write, and began to talk. He was about to start school. And then the armed hostilities began in Donbass.

When we visited my grandmother near Shakhtarsk, we came under fire. It was 28 July. We ran to the cellar - the aids flew off his ears, and we crushed them by accident. They couldn't buy new ones.

 I do not have husband anymore. He died in 2007. Support was nowhere to be found. I had to stay in Torez with my daughter and son. We didn't receive any payments or any assistance whatsoever.

 Once again, the charity workers from the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation came to our rescue, who bought a new pair of hearing aids for Kolya. My son, who had lived in complete silence for 10 months, was finally able to hear something again.