I made a new friend recently – a Ukrainian refugee. Until last February she was a normal 25 y.o. living in Kiev. College educated, she was working and had managed to buy her own apartment and have a decent, normal life.
Now she’s by herself in France, living in a borrowed tiny bedroom in a stranger’s house, separated from her family (her father and brothers had to stay behind), completely lost and depressed. She’s one of many.
Her English is all right, but she doesn’t speak French so she can’t get a job in France. Learning a language takes time and French is hard. Meanwhile she still needs to live somehow. She gets a very small allowance that she uses for food and to pay for her phone. Her housing situation is also complicated. The conditions aren’t very good, but people like to remind her that it’s better than being homeless. True, but she didn’t ask for a war to mess up her entire life and she doesn’t mean to be ungrateful, but what she wants is to be able to work and pay her bills, not to depend on charity.
Last week she told me she wants to move to the UK or England, because since she speaks English she could at least get a job. The thing is that getting a visa is really hard right now and even if she gets it, she doesn’t have a clue of how things work in those countries or how much it costs to start a life from scratch, without financial help.
I know the French institutions are doing what they can to help refugees, but they too have very limited resources. What a horrible situation for this girl and so many others like her who find their lives completely upside down because of someone else’s decisions. Their lives are on hold for an indefinite period of time and they live under pressure all the time never knowing what to expect tomorrow, if they’ll ever be able to return home or what they will find there if that day ever comes.
Isn’t in incredible that we are constantly hearing talks about peace, but conflict keeps destroying people's lives?
Now she’s by herself in France, living in a borrowed tiny bedroom in a stranger’s house, separated from her family (her father and brothers had to stay behind), completely lost and depressed. She’s one of many.
Her English is all right, but she doesn’t speak French so she can’t get a job in France. Learning a language takes time and French is hard. Meanwhile she still needs to live somehow. She gets a very small allowance that she uses for food and to pay for her phone. Her housing situation is also complicated. The conditions aren’t very good, but people like to remind her that it’s better than being homeless. True, but she didn’t ask for a war to mess up her entire life and she doesn’t mean to be ungrateful, but what she wants is to be able to work and pay her bills, not to depend on charity.
Last week she told me she wants to move to the UK or England, because since she speaks English she could at least get a job. The thing is that getting a visa is really hard right now and even if she gets it, she doesn’t have a clue of how things work in those countries or how much it costs to start a life from scratch, without financial help.
I know the French institutions are doing what they can to help refugees, but they too have very limited resources. What a horrible situation for this girl and so many others like her who find their lives completely upside down because of someone else’s decisions. Their lives are on hold for an indefinite period of time and they live under pressure all the time never knowing what to expect tomorrow, if they’ll ever be able to return home or what they will find there if that day ever comes.
Isn’t in incredible that we are constantly hearing talks about peace, but conflict keeps destroying people's lives?
