Before the war, Inna lived a normal life. Her daughter worked and studied at the college, her son went to elementary school. They visited their relatives on weekends. They had a cat and a dog at home. The war changed everything! “The day we left was the hardest – we were leaving a familiar life; the unknown was ahead. Fear, pain in my heart – that’s what I felt. We travelled to Slovakia for four days. We rode in the stream of refugees. It was difficult to explain to my son why we had to leave home.”, she remembers vividly. When they arrived in Slovakia, everything went as it should. There were nice, good people waiting for them, who gave them everything we needed for a normal life.

Inna went to the Family Help Centre at the beginning of the summer 2022. There she could find the necessary things for herself and for the children and most importantly they offered her to work there, to be useful for people. “It is very important that thanks to my work at the Centre I can get financial help. At the Centre I met good, interesting people who helped me to survive the separation from my homeland and to adapt in a new country.”, she describes.

Her husband and children like Slovakia and they have decided to stay in this country if it will be possible. “I am grateful to God for bringing me to the Centre. In spite of my serious illness, I have found a job here according to my strength and got rid of loneliness.”, she says.

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 Veronika. You can read more about The One Proposal: the coordinated Jesuit response to support the Ukraine Crisis here.