“We are so grateful to our new Irish friends”

Our journey to find safety in Ireland as refugees

By Tetiana Hrytsyk

On February 24, 2022, at 6:00 am, my family woke up because of a noise in the sky. It was something that we had never heard. The vibration from this noise was so hard that the metallic gate in our garage was shaking. It was scary! In some minutes, my husband got a call from his friend who lives in Odessa, and he said that Russia had started war with us. They had already bombarded Kyiv and Uman—bombs en masse by rocket.

In that moment our life was turned. We understood that Russia had started a war with us! We were in a panic. We started to collect documents and some clothes and run to the basement under our house.

The Ukrainian military (our husbands included) are fighting with Russian occupants. They are fighting for our Ukrainian territory.

Until March 16, 2022, we lived in peace in our village, where even refugees have come for safety. But in the night of March 17, 2022, my village was under attack. My family spent all night in the basement under our house for safety. The next day, before noon, we came back into the house. Thank God it was not destroyed.

One week before, I met a good man named Tommy. He is Irish and collects and manages aid deliveries from Ireland to Ukraine. I talked with him about getting aid for our refugees, who came from Kharkiv and Kyiv. He was so kind to help us. So, I found a truck for loading on the Poland-Ukrainian border to aid our people. We had an appointment for March 18 in Poland next to the border.

But on March 18, our village was occupied by the Russian military, so we couldn’t even leave the village. Tommy told me that the vans and trucks would return to Ireland in some days. Tommy was so kind and proposed that I go by van to Ireland with my daughter and other people who could go. This was on Friday.

We found a car and drove on a very dangerous journey to the Ukraine-Poland border. On Saturday afternoon, we started our journey to the border—myself, my daughter, my friend Olena, and her son. By midnight, we were there, and we walked across the border. Afterwards, we got into a refugees’ camp, which was provided for us by Poland’s government and the very kind Polish people. People who were there helped us from the first minute we arrived. They gave us blankets and hot drinks. Volunteers took our luggage and delivered us to a tent where there were a lot of refugees from Ukraine, and we all were in comfort. We had a place to sleep, hot drinks, and food.

Volunteers from all of the world were there. We met American, French, German, and Chinese volunteers. They all wanted to help us. Amazing people!

I called to Tommy to inform him that we were in the refugees’ camp in Medyka, Poland. He asked us to wait for him until morning (because he was so far from our place) and he would come to us. Tommy came in the morning as he promised. We spoke about our journey to Ireland by van, and he promised that the van would be ready soon. We were so happy. In a couple hours Tommy and his team and friends did huge work. They prepared four seats for us in a van. They did it for us! Amazing! Tommy came to the camp to pick us up, and we followed him to the van that would deliver us to Ireland. We met a very good man named John Ryan who became our driver.

On March 21, 2022, at 4:30 pm, we started our trip to Ireland.

Our first stop was a hotel next to the German-Poland border where we rested for the night. John paid for the hotel rooms. In the morning after breakfast, we decided that it would be better for us to fly from Paris to Dublin. John booked the tickets for the four of us, and his company, Cook Medical, was so kind and paid.

We continued our van trip to Paris. We got to Frankfurt late at night and stayed in a hotel. In the early morning, we continued our journey to our flight. Before afternoon, we went to a beautiful town in France where we stayed for breakfast. Only in France did we feel relaxed. We had a good meal, and then we went to Paris.

In the afternoon, we were in our hotel near the Paris airport. John paid again for our hotel room and gave us some money to visit Paris and the Eiffel Tower. John continued his trip to Ireland by van, and we stayed in Paris to wait for our flight the next day. John made our dream come true—we visited the Eiffel Tower. We walked for a while and went back to the hotel. We were so excited! So happy!

On the morning of March 23, 2022, we went to the airport. At 10:05 am we were on the plane and on our way to Dublin. In two hours we had landed. We passed passport control, and, together with other Ukrainian people, we went to the refugees’ center. There, we completed all our documents for getting a PPS number (Irish Social Security number) to remain legally in Ireland. After we applied our form, the Primark clothes company gave us some new clothes and other things. While we were in the refugees’ center, there was free food, drinks, and fruit for us. The people who work there were very kind and very polite to us!

Before we started our trip to Paris, Tommy met us with a very good man named Peter. Peter was so kind and invited us to stay in his house with his family. Darius, who works for Peter, met us at the airport and delivered us to Peter’s home where we met his wife Kelly, his daughter, and Fiona. We spoke a little. Then Fiona took my friend and her son to her house to stay, and we stayed in Peter and Kelly’s home.

Peter, Kelly and their daughter are very nice and are very kind people. They prepared a bedroom for me and my daughter. They care about us as if we are part of their family! Very nice people.

Kelly helped me and my daughter as well. She helped to arrange all the documents needed for school. She helped to me to get a job. Her family bought all the uniforms for my daughter for school, and they helped to buy other things for school too.

After five days in Ireland:
1. We have perfect friends.
2. I have a job.
3. My daughter is studying at Virginia College.
4. We are waiting for PPS numbers.
5. We receive weekly help from the Irish government.

We are so grateful to our new Irish friends and to all Irish people for their help and support! We promise to become good citizens of Ireland and to keep Ireland in a good reputation!

We want to say a huge thanks to:
Tommy
John Ryan
Cook Medical
Peter and Kelly and their team
Fiona and her family

We will pray to God for each of you!
With love to all of you!

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