We continue to share the stories of those who lost their homes to the war and had to flee to a safer place, but who, despite difficult personal and external circumstances, did not give up and believe in victory.
Together with her family she spent almost six months under occupation in Enerhodar, Zaporizhzhia region. The occupying authorities constantly ran filtration measures in the town and persecuted pro-Ukrainian activists; people disappeared every day, detained in the middle of the street or dragged out of their own homes.
The occupiers never managed to win the loyalty of the local people. There were constant threats and intimidation from the Russians: «It was impossible to know what to expect — the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was right there, and all the time we feared that something irreparable could happen at any moment,» Liudmyla says.
The decision to leave did not come at once: first the circumstances, then the occupiers’ ban on evacuation, then the dangerous road. And yet: «We decided to go to Lviv with my daughter-in-law and my five-year-old nephew. My parents and my younger brother stayed under occupation. For a long time we looked for contacts of people who take others out of the occupied territory. Having reached a Red Cross volunteer, we packed our things and left. The horror we went through at the Russian checkpoints cannot be put into words. After three long days we arrived in safe territory.»
Liudmyla and her family are now in Lviv. With the support of SVM and the European Disability Forum, within the League of the Strong project, GAR was able to help her and her relatives with temporary housing and to arrange a comfortable journey to work — Liudmyla works at GAR.
Thanks to the support of our partners from Sweden, Peter Sorensen of RG Active Rehabilitation, we have a vital part of the whole logistics covered — fuel for our transport. So Liudmyla’s daily trip to work and back in our GAR bus, and all the logistics for our team, are taken care of.
«I am very grateful to the Group for Active Rehabilitation for providing transport. Everything to do with moving around Lviv, carrying belongings, getting to work and back is easy and comfortable thanks to the adapted bus with a lift,» Liudmyla says.
It is hard to imagine what this woman went through under occupation and on the way to relative safety, but we admire her courage and resilience: «We are alive, and that is the most important thing,» she says.
We will win! Because a nation with people like her cannot fail to win!
