The words of Alena : We are a Ukrainian family of four in the city of Ternopil. We have two daughters with disabilities. Some say that it is God’s blessing, because such children are angels. If this is true, God has blessed our family twice… Our first daughter, Alice (6 years old) has a serious brain injury. She does not walk, does not talk and does not sit down on her own. She has a shunt in her head that helps her live. This year she needs surgery to replace the shunt. But because of the war, we can’t do that.

Second daughter – Bogdana. We call her Baghda. She has Down’s syndrome. She is only one year old. It is good that she is still young and does not understand what is happening, that there is a war. Alice also does not understand what happens when the siren blows and you need to hide. Unfortunately, there is no bomb shelter in our old house, and we just have to lay the children on the floor away from the windows and cover them with mattresses and pillows. They cannot hide themselves and cannot escape. And neither can we…. So we stay in an old house in our native land. But I’m not afraid, because I believe that God is above us, and maybe he gave us two angels for a reason…

Alena is a poet and writer of children’s books. Her poetry inspired by the war is extremely moving.