East SOS Helped Restore Maria’s Home After the Enemy’s Shelling in Bashylivka (Kharkiv Oblast)
Mariia Mykhailivna is 66. She lives in the village of Bashylivka, Lozova Raoin (district) in Kharkiv Oblast (region), with her two sons and her daughter, who has a disability.
Before retiring, Maria worked for many years as a dairy worker on a farm, taking care of nearly fifty cows. Today, she takes care of the household and grows vegetables in the garden so her family can have their own food.
Maria recalls the day of the enemy’s attack with fear:
“I was making varenyky (traditional Ukrainian dumplings) for the kids, and my son was getting ready for work. He shouted to me, ‘Mom, run out of the house!’ The first two drones struck somewhere nearby, and the third one hit right in the yard.”
The heated debris from the drone set her clothes on fire. Her neighbors and children rushed to help and quickly extinguished the flames. Fortunately, she survived, but the severe trauma has left her with a speech impairment.
The family’s dog was killed in the strike. Now, Maria is looking after her puppy and three kittens. She says it’s the animals that give her the most comfort, love, and the resilience to keep moving forward.
The East SOS team helped the family restore their home after the attack: the doors were replaced, the windows were repaired with polycarbonate, and the roof was fixed.
If you also need assistance restoring a home damaged during hostilities in the Izium or Lozova raions, and in the Barvinkove or Buznykiv hromadas (Kharkiv Oblast), as well as in the Oleksandrivka hromada (Donetsk Oblast), contact our call center Monday through Saturday at: 0 800 332 614 (8:00 am – 6:00 pm).
The repair works are being carried out as part of the project “Comprehensive Humanitarian Assistance to Conflict-Affected Ukrainians and Third-Country Nationals in Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and Moldova,” with the support of Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe and funding from the German Federal Foreign Office.
