Hanna, 76, from Oleksandrivka: “At my age, I don’t need a big house – just a small, quiet room where I no longer have to hide from the war.”
In 2022, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Hanna’s home in Huliaipole (Zaporizhzhia region) was destroyed by russian shelling.
Together with other residents, she spent 12 days in the basement of the school, trying to survive constant attacks. When she finally managed to get outside, she had no home left to return to. Hanna had no close family nearby, and she had lost her husband several years earlier.
A family from the Dnipropetrovsk region – relatives of old friends with whom Hanna once worked as a tractor driver – opened their doors to her. That is how she arrived in the village of Oleksandrivka. For more than three years she lived with them, helping with household chores, tending poultry, and planting a small vegetable garden.
But the war reached Oleksandrivka as well. In recent weeks, living in the village became unbearable: frequent shelling, damaged houses, piles of rubble, and a destroyed bridge that once provided a shorter route to the settlement. The family’s home also suffered: the roof was pierced, windows shattered, and the summer kitchen destroyed.
They held on for as long as they could. They didn’t want to leave their land, their home, their farm – everything that was familiar. But in the end, they understood the most important truth: life must come first. And they made the decision to evacuate.
Hanna Pavlivna and 16-year-old Danylo, the son of the family who sheltered her, were the first to evacuate, together with another related family. For several days, they stayed at a transit point in the village of Voloske, which serves as a reception point for evacuees. It was a short pause before moving on to a new home, found for them by friends in another village in the region.
Hanna Pavlivna deeply values the care and compassion the family has shown her:
“I don’t know what will happen next. The house we’re going to is small, and there are many of us, but I hope for the best and am grateful that I am not alone. That is the most important thing in such difficult times,” she said.
She admits that talking about her dream is difficult:
“At my age, I don’t need a big house – just a small, quiet room of my own, where I don’t have to hide from the war.”
With a warm smile, she says that young Danylo helps her with everything, and she is grateful to him as if he were her own grandson.
Danylo shares that the feeling is mutual:
“I’m already used to our grandmother Hanna. I try to help her with everything. I remember how we used to visit her before the war and bring her milk. And when the full-scale invasion began, my mother said she would live with us. We met her, loaded her things onto a bicycle, prepared a room, and started living together.”
At the transit point, the East SOS team supported Hanna, speaking with her, assessing her needs, informing her about legal and social assistance, offering psychological support, and surrounding her with warmth and care – so she could feel safe and supported at one of the hardest moments in her life.
Support for evacuees was provided within the project “Protection and Necessary Psychosocial Support for War-Affected Frontline Residents,” funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.
