written by: Hayley Smith, LHI Founder/Director
LHI founder/director Hayley Smith is on the ground in Moldova with other senior admin team members to establish LHI’s immediate response to the Ukraine refugee crisis. She has been visiting several sites run by local organizations to see how we can support both the orgs and also their beneficiaries.
She talked to Oxana at a shelter in Chișinău, Moldova. This is the transcription of their conversation.
Oxana from Odessa. She was so warm, so generous, so kind, so soft-spoken, so humble. Photo by Shannon Ashton.
[You can hear Oxana come down the rickety stairs from the attic apartment of the shelter to a storage room that is now an improvised living room]
Hayley: “Hi! I’m Hayley”
Oxana: “Hi, I’m Oxana” [Oxana knows English]
Hayley: "I want to hug you, but I don’t know if that’s okay, with covid and all”
[Oxana comes in for a long, strong hug]
Hayley: “Where are you from?”
Oxana: “We are from Odessa. We arrived tomorrow, I mean yesterday. We don’t know how many days I will stay. I hope maybe 10 days. I hope that the problems with Russia will be over. I’m here with my daughter. She’s five. Four families live in the apartment."
Hayley: “Are you traveling to family?”
Oxana: “No, I don’t have any family in Europe. I have friends in Poland. I have a sister in California [indicates her shirt], but I don’t know how I can get there. I don’t have a visa. And her husband is Filipino. They aren’t citizens and don’t have a way to get us there. I would rather arrive to Ukraine. I don’t want to live in another country. All of my friends and family are in Ukraine [5 second pause] I don’t understand yet what happened. I don’t understand yet. It happened very fast. I didn’t think it was possible. I still can’t believe. My mind can’t believe why? Why? Why did this happen? It’s very shocking. It’s just political things and we suffer. Now I think about my child. What will happen? What about her future? We can’t live like this forever. I very hope that God will see everything and I can maybe stay 10 days. I very hope and go to my country."
Hayley: “Are your parents in Ukraine? How are they?”
Oxana: “My parents are okay. My husband is live in Ukraine. He wants to live with us but he can’t. And my mother and father I want them to come but they say no, no. Go! We will stay here. It’s our country, it’s our town. My sister, very younger than me, and she says 'Go sister! Go Go Go! Very Faster! Go! No No!' She is very afraid. She has two children and my child. 'Faster! Go with your child now!'"
Hayley: “Do you talk to your husband everyday?”
Oxana: “I talk to my husband everyday. Morning. Afternoon. Evening. We say every day. ‘How is the town?’ ‘What is it like now?’"
Hayley: “Is everything okay there so far?”
Oxana: “No, this is the start. Because Odessa is a very big town, very important, and they want to control port. It is a strategy town or something like that. Because other town like Kharkov and Kyiv are in the middle, but Odessa is on the sea. It is where they can come into Ukraine. We will be safe here and hope the God."
Hayley: “And you have a child?”
Oxana: "Yes, you see my child is playing [upstairs]. She is good. She said, 'oooo! We have so many plans!' She has other girls to play with. She don’t understand. Maybe better this way."
Click here to learn more and support LHI’s work for Ukrainian refugees.
Hayley visits shelters in Chișinău, Moldova