Getting to summer camp with your best friend is a dream. Getting to another country, while fleeing war — is a nightmare. In this photo, Anna and Sofia, whose homesickness is eased by old friendships from kindergarten and free time at the «Summer Courage».
The girls are 9 years old, and together with their parents they left their homes in a hurry and did not even imagine whether life here would at least slightly resemble the peaceful life in Ukraine.
Fortunately, now each of the girls can do what they liked to do at home. Sofia — to draw and learn languages, Anna — to dance and participate in new game competitions every day. They went here without winter clothes and far-reaching plans, but now the opportunity to attend the «First Ukrainian School in Poland» from autumn gives children hope for the future and the opportunity to maintain a connection with their native home.
For a boy who has been practicing both boxing and ballroom dancing for six years, summer camp is the perfect environment. However, 12-year-old Artem did not think about leisure, he did not even want to go outside. Before the evacuation, his parents, older brother Arsenii and Labrador Krystal had to run to the shelter 5 times a day, because their hometown Sumy was under occupation. The children constantly heard explosions, including at the military base near the place they lived.
Having gone abroad, Artem did not recover from what he experienced, he continued to watch the planes with fear. Depression was coming. But the impressions from the summer camp gradually returned to Artem and Arsenii’s enthusiastic smiles, and the desire to continue life and find friends. The children were able to easily get to know Polish children, so now they gather together for football games and play with their favorite Labrador.
Lilia practiced the piano, and when her relatives ran around the house, packing up to the whistling of shells and rockets, she stood, cried, and quietly played. The words “as if for the last time”, with which her mother described this game, cannot be called pathetic. For 9-year-old Lily and her family, they had a literal meaning. Lily’s mother and 4-year-old Nastya run away on the third day in the basement near the combat zone in the Kyiv region.
Lily’s pictures and songs are sad now. They are about war. About separation from dad, friends. She often screams at night. And any sound, even the rumble of a tram, scares her. However, the days in the camp give the girl a sense of safety. Here she forgets about the existence of air raids and rockets and devotes herself to interesting activities — new ones every day, in order to enthuse the children with life every day.
The camp helps 10-year-old Karolina from Mykolaiv fight her sadness and loneliness so that her mother can take care of herself and fight cancer. In her hometown, the girl attended the Ukrainian folk ensemble «Flowers of Ukraine» from the age of three. She is a daredevil, and despite the ordeal, she wants to return to dancing.
The mother of 7-year-old Mykhailo says that the camp became a refuge for him. As soon as the war started, he and his mother emigrated to Romania, then to Israel, and finally ended up in Kraków. And for 6-year-old Karolina, the winter trip did not end with her return home. It is difficult to imagine the feeling of a child who learns about a barbarian attack on his country in a world that a moment ago was exciting, promising, and safe for him.
Karolina and Mykhailo overcame a long way into an unknown life and found support in each other. In Kraków, they will go to the «First Ukrainian School in Poland» together. The school was created in partnership with UNICEF. Here, the Ukrainian education program is used, so it is easier for children to cope with stress and establish trusting relationships with the environment.
Smiling children in the photo from the summer camp. The camp, which this summer was a refuge for the children, was a part of their home. A free home to which we will all return.