February 18, 2025
News
“We heard powerful explosions. We were told to pack our bags and leave,” recalls 16-year-old Ivan. He is one of 36 children evacuated by a Ukrainian couple in February 2022 from Mariupol and nearby villages before the Russians besieged the city and began to destroy it. The war has left Ivan a complete orphan. His home was damaged, and the city has been occupied for three years. Ivan got back on his feet thanks to the support of his guardians and friends in a settlement built by Caritas Czech Republic in Transcarpathia.
An orphaned childhood at the frontline
Since the age of 6, Ivan has known about war not from movies, but from reality. In 2014, Mariupol was attacked by pro-Russian rebels who occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Ukrainian defenders retook the city, but as a result of the breakthrough of Russian troops, it became the frontline and was subject to constant attacks until the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022.
At the age of eleven, Ivan lost his father and his life became different forever. One day, with a friend, he attended a summer children's camp organised by acouple from the Kyiv region near Mariupol. Volodymyr and Oksana had come from the Christian Rescue Service to help affected children in frontline villages. At one of them, they founded the ‘Ark of Peace’ religious and educational centre, where children who had lost their parents were provided with comfortable living, learning, and leisure facilities.
Six months before the full-scale invasion, Volodymyr and Oksana offered Ivan's mother their help in raising the boy, and later Ivan moved to the children's centre to study.
“Ahead of 24 February 2022, my friend and I came across a video of powerful explosions in Shyrokyne, a half-hour drive from Mariupol. The very next day, we were taken away in groups, first to the Kyiv region and then to Poland,” Ivan recalls.
Unfortunately, not all parents were able to join their children. Ivan's mother was trapped in a city surrounded by Russian forces. Russian troops did not allow humanitarian convoys to pass and blocked the evacuation of civilians. The battle for Mariupol lasted for almost 3 months, during which the Russian forces systematically destroyed residential areas, committing mass killings. After the heroic defence of Mariupol in May 2022, the city fell under occupation.
Ivan and the children from the ‘Ark of Peace’ had already left for Poland and then Italy when the sad news came.
"My Mum's heart broke... She died at work at the end of March 2022. As I found out about this, I could not recover for a long time," he says quietly.
Friends and animals help to heal from the war trauma
We are talking with Ivan in the courtyard of a modular town in the village of Serednie, in Transcarpathia, far from the war zone. In the autumn of 2022, Volodymyr and Oksana returned here from abroad with 17 children evacuated from Mariupol. 6 of them, like Ivan, were orphaned. For them and for those children whose relatives remained in the occupation, the couple became guardians.
Initially, the large family lived together under one roof in a former family-type house. In the summer of 2023, they moved into 12 new modular houses built nearby by Caritas Czech Republic. Several families from the occupied Luhansk region and the frontline areas of Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions also found refuge here. Today, a total of 40 internally displaced people live in the modular settlement.
In two years, the place that used to be empty has turned into a cosy settlement where everyone lives as one big family. From time to time, educational camps and workshops are organised here, and locals also join in.
“My friends and I are like brothers now. I realised that I am not alone. That I have best friends and guardians who are always with me,” Ivan says.
The younger children attend a local kindergarten and school, and the older ones have entered higher education institutions in the city. Ivan says he wants to study to be a chef. He often cooks together with Oksana and enjoys the culinary events held in the settlement.
“I dream of opening my pizzeria in the future,” he says smilingly.
During a walk around the modular town, Ivan takes us to his favourite corner - the mini-zoo, where nutria and foxes live alongside domestic dogs, chickens and goats. Volodymyr explains that animals play an important role not only in teaching responsibility and care but also in helping children recover from war trauma. He and Oksana believe that Mariupol will be liberated and are preparing to take in the affected people. They are currently undergoing training to better help people in need of psychological rehabilitation.
“We dream of the soonest possible liberation of the occupied territories. We want people from Mariupol and other cities to come here and recover. We are trying to create the best possible conditions for them to feel cared for and get back on their feet,” says Volodymyr.
Caritas Czech Republic in Ukraine
Caritas Czech Republic has been helping people in Ukraine since the beginning of the war. In addition to providing much-needed humanitarian aid, we provide shelter to internally displaced people in modular houses in western Ukraine. We are also improving living conditions in dormitories.
In western Ukraine, we support Ukrainians who have decided to stand on their own feet after evacuating from the war zone. Through mini-grants, we support the restoration of livelihoods for people in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and the Transcarpathian region.
In eastern Ukraine, we improve the accessibility and quality of rehabilitation and reproductive medicine by modernising hospitals and educating staff. In the South, we restorе water supply, insulate homes, and provide firewood for heating in frontline villages.
