Faina was asleep at her home in Dnipro when she was awakened by a loud noise. At first, she thought it might be a military plane from the nearby base, but it wasn’t long before a former student called and let her know that there were explosions all over Ukraine. Faina didn’t believe her, but then she looked online and saw that it was true.
It was February 24, and Russia had invaded Ukraine. Faina’s niece, who lives in the USA, called her aunt, concerned about her safety. She had the urge to travel to the Ukraine and help her, but Faina insisted she was better off staying where she was and finding ways to help from afar, which she eventually did by sending humanitarian aid.
Faina, on the other hand would have stayed in Dnipro if she had the choice. She is by nature a fearless and strong person, but, like her own niece, she is a loving niece herself. For the past several years, since the age of 52, she has been caring for her elderly aunt with disabilities. Before that, she was an engineering professor, but when the war started, she was happily settled in her new home working on her hobby of painting. “I have such a nice house with a garden in Dnipro. My niece helped me build this house. I did not plan to leave my house, I wanted to stay there and look after my aunt. I had everything I needed to live happily in my city. Even this year, I planted beetroots, parsley, and dill there. Now my garden is full of weeds.”
But in the end, Faina felt that leaving was the right course of action. “At the beginning of April, I started to realize that I should flee from Dnipro. My house is not destroyed. I had everything to live there. Nevertheless, I had to evacuate my aunt because, in case of an emergency, I could not have found the required medical assistance. On the 17th of April, I was forced to flee from war with her.”
Because of her aunt’s health, Faina wanted to make the journey out of Dnipro as seamless as possible. She bought tickets in the palace car of the train to Lviv. “From Lviv to Poland, we went by bus, but it stopped for five hours at the border. My aunt felt exhausted. She could not even walk.” Even the “easy” journey was difficult.
Faina is proud of her town and her people. Dnipro, which is in the eastern part of Ukraine between Kyiv and the Donbas region, was home to nearly 1 million people before the war. Despite Faina and others leaving, the population of Dnipro has rapidly grown as many people from the east have fled there for refuge. “Dnipro holds the line because of its brave citizens,” Faina says. “As the war broke out, we felt really united. Even homeless people helped by collecting bottles for Molotov cocktails. That's true. I saw it with my own eyes. A new refugee center was also opened in Dnipro. There were crowds of people who wanted to help refugees.”
Once in Poland, Faina and her aunt found themselves at the Wolno Nam refugee center in Krakow. (Future story coming about this refugee center.) She immediately felt welcomed. “I want to tell you about the Polish people. When I first came here, I felt so happy. Volunteers hugged and welcomed me here. They supported me psychologically. We all feel the great support of the Polish people. The Polish nation has sympathy for Ukrainians. We have a similar history.”
Faina has also found a way to use her art skills to distract the children at Wolno Nam. “Here I teach children how to draw. It helps me move on. We paint together and decorate the walls around us. You can see a lot of paintings on the walls. Children can learn how to draw and this is a therapy for them and me as well. I'm not a professional artist or teacher. My sister was an artist, and when she died, I decided to try painting. I thought, ‘God, if I learn how to paint, then it will be like a gift from heaven.’”
Faina has been surprised by the response to her art. “One of the first works was the Statue of Liberty. When I went to the USA to visit my niece, I brought this painting. My niece proposed selling the painting, and I earned $100. An Italian bought this artwork and even asked for more paintings. It was crucial for me to feel needed. I donated this money to a man who lost his hand in 2017 in the anti-terrorist operation zone in the Donbas region. It inspired me to paint more. I had never painted before, but after the death of my sister, I discovered I had the talent. I completed nine paintings last winter.”
In the midst of so much disruption, Faina has found a way to use her talents to help others. She doesn’t plan to stay in Poland forever, but plans to travel to Germany, learn the language, and continue to support her aunt. But in the end, her deepest desire is to be able to return to her beloved Dnipro.
We reached out to Faina a few weeks after we met her. She let us know that she made it to Germany to learn the language and get her aunt better medical care, but after she got there, her aunt died. Faina borrowed money and returned to Krakow to bury her aunt. She is in despair and says that she doesn’t know what to do in Germany without her aunt. Her niece invited her to the USA, and she plans on going there soon.
Her resilience and generosity are amazing. I hope she can make the journey to be with her niece very soon.