Volunteering for refugees

Nathalie Halbout

I was honored to volunteer to register refugees for some financial aid provided by an American non profit. Initially I was hesitant to join the volunteer team: these people were evacuated from one of the hottest frontline town- Chasiv Yar. Was I strong enough to hear the horror stories and be able to support them? The whole town was heavily shelled and now it is leveled to the ground by russki. These people will never be able to go back home- even in the best case scenario( if Ukraine gets the occupants out), this town would be too costly to rebuild. Cleaning out the debris would be extremely expensive…. So it would be easier to start from scratch…

I was glad to learn that they were evacuated about 2 years ago and now they try to get adjusted to the life in the big city of Kyiv. They learned to live with the loss of their home. The man of 80 years old was telling me that his house was hit by Islander missile and he got wounded in his stomach. I was about to cry, but he sad with the calm face- I managed to survive after 4 surgeries. My other client was born in Bakhmut- another destroyed town, for which many Ukrainian lives were lost. My heart skips a bit when I hear Bakhmut… People try to continue on living. They are the refugees who will never go back home. My sister and her husband are the refugees who are not going to survive in their home, were they to come back now. P.S. There was no electricity, hence the power station to keep the laptops on. #redbanknj #redbank #centraljersey #monmouthcounty #monmouthcountynj