“When the war started, my husband was working in another country and I was alone at home in Odessa with my daughter, it was very scary.”, Krystyna recalls.

After Krystyna and her daughter stayed in the bomb shelter for a week, they decided to leave Ukraine with her parents, her mother-in-law, her sister and her two children. “It was a difficult journey, we stayed on the road for two days without knowing exactly where to go. Then we decided to come to Bucharest.”, she recalls.

Thankfully, once she got to Romania, she was helped by JRS Romania, which she now considers her second family. “Here I can relax, my body and mind. I come here for various activities (stretching and English) and my daughter loves to participate in the children’s activities.”, she says. She hopes the war will be over soon, but she decided to stay in Romania. She’s waiting for JRS Romania to open a kindergarten, so that her daughter can attend.

JRS is working together with the Xavier Network, Concordia Moldova, the Society of Jesus in Europe, local civil society, and NGOs in a coordinated Jesuit response. Together we help thousands of people like Krystyna. You can read more about The One Proposal: the coordinated Jesuit response to support the Ukraine Crisis here.