Like so many thousands of children, Nastea has had to leave her life in Ukraine behind.
On the first day of the week the Beginning of Life team at MoldExpo Refugee Centre noticed a particular little girl. She was about 11-12 years old, and was in a crowd of other children who were playing in the playground the team had set there. She was hanging around the team all of the time they were there. She wanted to help the team, to be close, always looking for a hug. She was very quiet and shy, and it was easy to read the deep pain in her eyes. Team members spent some time talking with her and she shared what she, her mum and little brother had been through. This is Nastea’s story.
“We were living in small room in dormitory in Kharkiv. I was attending school and my brother was preparing to go to school this year. When we heard a loud sound outside in early morning, mum told me, that probably something happened at the factory. But then we heard many of those explosions and women in the corridor were saying that the war has started, and we all need to run away from here. Mum took us to the basement of the house, because there were explosions happening very close to our district. It was scary when something was blown up very close and people around started to scream and cry. Then soldier helped us to get out of the basement and we sat in a bus and left home. We were sleeping several days in different places. And after, we got to the big crowd of people who were walking slowly somewhere. Mum said to me we need to walk too with them all. It was so cold outside and I was very tired, and Misha was crying.
At the border a woman gave us bananas and juice, which I liked very much. And a bus drove us to this place. We leave here in a small room in big pavilion. I was so happy when I saw through the window how you began to inflate your castle with air. It reminded me how we were last summer in a park for children in our hometown. It was so funny to see a boy falling down from the trampolines. I would love to take my mum here because she is often crying. I don’t know where we will go… and when I will see my father and grandma… and my cat”.