03/08 update from Ukraine +Testimony of Anna

Hello,

Sorry for not sharing info yesterday. We were on the road and had no reception.
We are set to go and on Thursday we send our first delegation to the refugees station next to the border of Ukraine and Poland. Together with "Natan" humanitarian aid organisation, we are going to try and help with children and youth activities and some more help. We hope we will be in use. We will share our insights after we will settle in.

Here is the testimony of Anna:

On the 24th morning I woke up in peaceful Kyiv, turned on the phone, and there was war. All my family asked how I am? A sister from Kharkov writes that they woke up at 5 am from the bombing. Parents from Lisichansk also heard explosions (but they are already used to it, this is the Luhansk region).
I could not believe it, it seemed to me that this was some kind of misunderstanding.

The first 3 days are like a blur: anxiety, fear for the children, thoughts are confused, it is not clear to leave or stay, if you leave, then where. Then came the realization, little by little. The feeling of fear subsided. Then they started bombing Kharkov and I was completely covered - this is the city where I studied, where I lived for many years. In the three days since the beginning of the heavy bombing, absolutely all my relatives and friends left Kharkov. They said terrible things. About bombs, fires, panic, chaos, empty store shelves, inability to pay with a card, lack of gasoline and a terrible crush at train stations.

The whole city was shelled at my parents in Lisichansk. When they fired at a glass factory across the street from their house, their windows were shattered. Thank God everyone is alive. As long as they are alive. The bombings do not stop there and everything is very bad with medicines, food and water.

We are in Kyiv. Me, husband, daughter 5 years old, son 3 months old and mother-in-law with a hip fracture. Our only breadwinner was left without a job. But that's not what matters now. Would survive. I sit writing under the roar. This is in Irpin, 10 km from us. Every day it gets louder, it rumbles more and more. The ring narrows around Kyiv. I so hope that it will not be like in Kharkov, Mariupol and other long-suffering cities and villages, where people die, sit in basements without food and water, come under shelling.
When sirens or a strong sound of explosions - we hide in the corridor.
But I again believed in people. Everyone helps each other so much. I have never seen such unity. everyone is scared, but holding on to each other!!! And all volunteers. When Anya called, and in a cheerful, confident voice she said that they and the guys would do everything to help us ... I almost burst into tears.

There is no longer any hope for negotiations between politicians. Some doom and emptiness in the chest. What remains is faith in our army, in our people and in God. Only a miracle will save us. I pray🙏🙏🙏