80-year- old Lizaveta lives alone in the small village Mirnoe in Volnovakha distict of Donetsk region. Both of her sons have disabilities and can hardly support their elderly mother from their tiny disability payments. On that hot summer night when her house was shelled, Lizaveta was sleeping in a summer cottage which saved her life in the end. The blasting wave has pushed the old lady out of bed on the floor. On her knees she escaped to her cellar to hide their from the continuing firing.
“When I was crawling, I could not look around. My only thought was to hide somewhere. In the morning my neighbor rushed in the year, calling for my name. When I get out from cellar, I saw that I have no home anymore,” Liza remembers that tragic night with tears in her eyes.
An old lady is now living in the shed, where she used to keep firewood for heating. Her house was destroyed by two direct hits, which left it in ruins not suitable for living.
Lizaveta, however, fear to leave her home and asked our colleagues to repair at least part of the building so she would not spend winter living in the shed without any heating.
Recently our partners Danish Refugee Council delivered construction materials to Lizaveta. While the construction works are still ahead, an elderly lady is happy that she will be able to return to her home very soon
UNHCR Ukraine/Anatoli Shcherbyna/Donetsk region/August 2016