Ukraine, a family after the hell of Mariupol/3: from war to peace of Caritas-Spes

(A 3-part story of what happened to a family fleeing the war in Ukraine) “It’s a miracle,” says the woman who, together with her husband, five children and elderly mother, escaped from Mariupol, after having lived for a month and a half in the basement of their home , the only place that guaranteed a minimum level of safety from bombs, and after having faced a sixteen-day journey through a Ukraine without peace occupied by the Russian military. The miracle is having left the city of Mariupol safe and sound, and having survived unscathed the many dangers encountered on the journey. Now, in the Caritas-Spes center “The children are happy, they play football, they draw. The food here is excellent, they try to provide us with everything we need. We have been given many gifts. People understand that we have so much pain inside, that we have nowhere to go. Those who are generous are also open to others and do not ask for anything in return. They just tell us to rest… to take a walk… We are grateful to God to be here, the children are recovering quickly”. The children are between 5 and 22 years old. The teenage girl is the most affected: “She comes into the room and sits down to cry saying ‘when I remember Veronica I can’t take it’”. Veronica was a friend of hers who is no longer with us, they had known each other since kindergarten, they were making plans about what they would do after middle school. Her mother assures her that from now on everything will be fine: “I tell her that if God saved us from all this, then he has a plan for us”. Over one hundred thousand people have passed through the centers managed by Caritas-Spes Ukraine. Each of these people has their own life story and war story, each carries their own pain. (The text is a summary of the article that appeared on the Caritas-Spes Ukraine website, from which the photograph is also taken)