East SOS helped reunite a woman from frontline Kostiantynivka with her family
Olena, 60, has spent her whole life in Kostiantynivka – the so-called “glass capital” of the Donetsk region.
For decades she worked in a hot department at the local glass factory. Her husband, who also worked at the plant, died at work, and Olena became a widow at 37.
When her daughter and grandson moved abroad in 2014, Olena stayed behind. With the full-scale invasion, life in the frontline city turned into a series of constant challenges: shelling, fear, and loneliness. She kept telling herself she would manage – until a shell hit the balcony of her apartment and she understood it was time to leave.
Olena called the East SOS hotline and received immediate support. The Foundation organized her evacuation from Kostiantynivka to Druzhkivka, then to Pavlohrad, and later helped arrange temporary shelter on Nezlamna Street in Dnipro. Throughout the process she was accompanied and supported by Olha Prasil-Kovaliova, a social worker at East SOS.
“Olena took a long time to decide to leave. Evacuation is always hard – because of the fear of leaving home and the financial difficulties. But the long separation from her daughter weighed on her too: eleven years apart raised doubts about whether they could grow close again. We supported her and helped her take this journey step by step,” explains Olha.
During her stay in the temporary shelter in Dnipro, the foundation’s social worker helped Olena renew her passport, exchange money, and organize her trip to Poland to reunite with her family. Soon after, the long-awaited meeting took place – warm hugs with her daughter and grandson after 11 years of separation, tears of joy, and a new beginning together.
Later, Olena sent a message to the team:
“Thank you for your help and for giving me back my family.”
In September 2025, with the support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the East SOS team provided 340 social counseling sessions and 75 individual psychological sessions to war-affected people.
The team also organized two group activities – an art therapy session for evacuated women at the Nezlamna Street shelter in Dnipro and a creative workshop to develop fine motor skills for older people at the Center for Social Adaptation for People with Disabilities of the NGO Ocean of Good (Dnipro).
The social and psychological support provided by East SOS helps people who have experienced loss gradually regain a sense of dignity, control over their lives, and inner peace – something that the war has taken from so many.
Psychosocial support is provided within the project “Protection and Psychosocial Services for People with Limited Mobility and Persons with Disabilities Affected by War”, supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
Recently, East SOS has renovated the house of a couple from Izium district.
