Ms. Svitlana (name changed for security reasons) from Kryvyi Rih lives with her husband and daughter in a house that was damaged by shelling in September. At the time of the tragedy, Ms. Svitlana’s husband was at home, but she and her daughter were not.
“When it happened, everyone was in shock. The curtains on the windows were cut into thin ribbons. The table and bed were broken. The door was smashed in. But fortunately, everyone was alive and well. The apartment was covered with thick dust, the trees under the windows looked like they were covered in frost. There was nothing to breathe from the dust. When I was cleaning, I found the fragments of the rocket… The blast wave not only smashed the windows, but even stopped our clocks at the moment of the explosion. In the first minutes, there was despair, fear, and confusion,” Ms. Svitlana recalls.
The biggest challenge for the family was replacing the windows. “Our plastic windows were damaged, and we simply did not have the money for new ones. It is extremely difficult to live with boarded-up windows. But thanks to your help, everything has changed for the better,” the woman says.
The family applied for repairs through the local aid center. The windows were replaced in a month: the window unit in the kitchen, the windows in the bedrooms, and the slopes were also repaired.
“Your support was invaluable. It was more than just help with window repairs. It was understanding, compassion and support. In those moments when it seems that I was left alone with the problem, you were there for me. We are very grateful not only for the financial assistance, but also for the psychological support,” says Svitlana.
The assistance provided under the project “Humanitarian Assistance to Affected Cities and Places of Accommodation of IDPs in Ukraine” is implemented by the Stabilization Support Services Charitable Foundation with the support of the international humanitarian organization CARE and financial support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).