We continue to tell the stories of the residents of our shelter in Uzhhorod, who were forced to leave their homes due to the war and seek a safer place for their children. Since its opening, the "PrykhystOK" shelter in Uzhhorod has taken in almost 230 people affected by russian military aggression, most of whom are children.

This time we are talking to Asya Antsyferova, who currently lives in Uzhhorod with her 16-year-old son Tymofiy and 75-year-old mother. Due to the war, she has had to leave her home for the second time. In 2014, her family fled from occupied Donetsk to Kharkiv, which they left in March 2022 due to russian shelling.

"In 2014, when the war began, my family and I left Donetsk for Kharkiv, because my husband is from Kharkiv. There, we started from scratch – looking for a place to live, settling in, adapting... Then I found the strength not only to support myself and my family, but also to help others, so I have been volunteering since 2014 and continue to do so today. Between 2014 and 2022, we supported those who left the temporarily occupied settlements of Luhansk and Donetsk regions, and in 2022, when we were evacuated to Uzhhorod, we spent a week living in a sports hall with 200 neighbors who had also been forced to leave their homes because of the war. Then a family in Uzhhorod gave us a roof over our heads, and we lived with them for over a month. Then there was another family with whom we lived and cared for an elderly woman who had suffered strokes. We are glad that she is feeling much better now", says Asya, a remarkably composed and strong woman.

The family developed friendly relations with the Uzhhorod residents who took them in for the second time. As a result, their new acquaintances provided them with accommodation, where the Kharkiv residents are moving from the shelter to continue their journey.

"During my three months living in the shelter, wonderful things happened in my life. In particular, I received a grant for education from the charity fund "SOS Children’s Villages", and I have been learning to drive at a local driving school for a month now. They say that eventually I will be able to work as a taxi driver. Again, thanks to new acquaintances, my son took barista courses here and even had his first experience putting his new skills to the test. I was also invited to join the team of the theater studio for displaced persons "UZiK", where I now work as a sound engineer. Although I have a degree in singing, this is a new direction for me, a new challenge and new opportunities. The shelter became a place where we could stop, breathe and rethink our new life – to understand what we can do and what we want", says Asya.

Her son Tymofiy continues his online education at his school, has successfully completed 10th grade, dreams of a future career in cybersecurity, and plans to pursue higher education abroad. To this end, he has already mastered a certain level of Slovak and obtained the relevant certificate.

"Twenty years ago, I first came to Uzhhorod with my husband as a tourist. Back then, while walking along the embankment, I threw a coin into the Uzh River and said to myself: “What a wonderful city! I would like to come back here”. The circumstances under which this happened are extremely difficult, but I feel good here. I quickly began to integrate into the local community – I already know a few phrases in the local dialect, Slovak, Hungarian... This allows me to feel like I belong, not like an outsider. My son also made friends with the residents of the shelter, took part in joint sessions with a psychologist, developmental games... All this helped the child to socialize, learn about the world in new circumstances, and expand his circle of communication. By the way, I would especially like to express my gratitude for the approach taken towards us here at the shelter, where we were treated first and foremost as ordinary people, not as IDPs. We discussed issues and problems that every person faces. At the same time, we were provided with conditions in which it was comfortable for everyone to talk about important and everyday things, and interesting leisure activities were organized, allowing us to distract ourselves from our daily worries. This was extremely valuable, and I am grateful to the shelter team for that", our interviewee concludes.

Currently, families from Sumy, Kharkiv, and Mykolaiv regions are staying at the temporary accommodation facility for women and children from among internally displaced persons, "PrykhystOK", in Uzhhorod. All of them were forced to leave their homes because of the war – some because the security situation deteriorated significantly, others because the enemy temporarily occupied their settlements and made life there unbearable. Different paths and circumstances brought people to Uzhhorod and directly to our shelter, but everyone there receives the necessary assistance and psychosocial support. 

"PrykhystOK" is part of the project "Mother and Child Home for IDPs in Uzhhorod", which is being implemented by the Medical Aid Committee in Zakarpattya in cooperation with "terre des hommes Deutschland e.V.".