{"id":311114,"date":"2024-09-12T18:36:02","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T15:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/holosy-rehioniv-12-09"},"modified":"2025-01-07T16:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T14:05:09","slug":"holosy-rehioniv-12-09","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/holosy-rehioniv-12-09","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe have to help each other\u201d: the story of a woman from Kherson who survived the occupation and continues helping under fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Russian aggression hits the most vulnerable Ukrainians the hardest. People who had a hard time even before the war, during the war overcome difficulties that the civilized world knows only from history books. War is quite a challenge for all families, but what is it like when you have a child with disability? Then you can\u2019t do without outside help. Public organizations and individual volunteers become saviors in the true sense of the word.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olha Tsilynko survived the occupation of Kherson and continues living in the city under fire. More than two dozen families with children with disabilities are under her care. The Sofia Family Rehabilitation Center, headed by Olha, has been active for 15 years, and all this time the organization has been supporting families that have children with central nervous system disorders. Today, when Kherson is under Russian shelling around the clock, Olha keeps supporting her people.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Olha and her children<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During the last few years, before the big war, the families of the NGO “Sofia Family Rehabilitation Center” could have a short vacation and rehabilitation at the sea in the Kherson region. This was provided at the expense of the city budget. So children whose families do not have enough money for full-fledged vacation and rehabilitation could go to the Black Sea coast every year to recuperate and undergo rehabilitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the occupation of Kherson in 2022, the rehabilitation of children with disabilities was suspended, as was a whole series of activities for them. However, Olha couldn\u2019t afford to “put her families on hold” either. The heroine says they are hers, because since joining the organization, the families have really become one family, and the \u201cfriend or foe\u201d identification has become very important during the occupation and Russian shelling that has been going on since the first days of the full-scale invasion. Olha calls her families \u201cSofiykas\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“During the occupation, it was important for me that no one went to the Russians for a \u201chumanitarian aid\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kherson region was one of those where the invaders advanced the fastest. In the end, almost the entire region, including the regional center, was under occupation. In Kherson, the panic was about the same as in other communities: drugs disappeared from pharmacy shelves and food from store shelves. It was difficult to withdraw money from ATMs. As the occupation deepened, it became more difficult not only to get cash, but also to pay by card: at a certain stage, the Russians began to control the use of terminals and actively “seized” them \u2013 that’s what they called the actual theft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“During the occupation, it was important for me that no one went to the Russians for \u201chumanitarian aid,\u201d says Olha Tsilynko. \u201cLet’s be honest: in most of my families, mothers support children on their own \u2013 without fathers. Unfortunately, these are the realities. A mother raising a child with a disability cannot work full-time either. The occupation of Kherson has also stopped the usual and full-fledged work processes \u2013 many people have lost their jobs and earnings. My mothers are practically on the verge of survival. In addition, alimony was not transferred either. This is what probably surprises me most in the occupation: mothers of children with disabilities did not receive alimony for almost a year from the beginning of the occupation. How were they supposed to live?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On June 1, 2022, children under occupation draw yellow and blue Kherson with chalk. Photo by Olha<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Olha emphasized: she was perfectly aware that the occupation would begin with the Russians distributing “humanitarian aid” and filming it for propaganda. Having a degree in history and being a long-term volunteer, Olha Tsilynko recalls that it was exactly what happened in Crimea and in the occupied communities of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014. After the occupation began, she kept appealing to caring people on social media to help financially. The money was used to buy food and drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children with disabilities need medicines constantly to maintain their vital functions. Pharmacies closed very quickly, the almost forgotten Soviet word “get” reappeared in everyday life, the woman recalls: “Medicines could be ordered and paid for from familiar volunteers, some of whom were in the Ukrainian government-controlled area. And they tried to take them to Kherson at the risk of their lives. The Russians did not always let them through. There were cases when volunteers were taken prisoner; some were killed by Russians at checkpoints. Sometimes cargo was simply stolen. It was such a scary time\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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July 27, 2022, the occupied Kherson. Olha took a photo of fresh colors<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Not all medicines could be \u201cgot\u201d. “The de-occupation of Kherson saved a lot: one of the first things we did was to buy and deliver the medicines that the children needed so much,” says Olha. \u201cNone of the families went to get Russian \u2018humanitarian aid\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shelling and blowing up of the Kakhovka HPP: whatever happens, it’s good that there are no Russians<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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On November 11, 2022, in Kherson, Olha hugs a soldier. The photo appeared in one of the exhibitions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You can see Olha Tsilynko in various photographs that went around the world in the first days of Kherson\u2019s de-occupation in November 2022. Together, the families she takes care of celebrated the liberation from the Russians. Together, they survive shelling. Together, they overcame another disaster \u2013 when the Russians blew up the Kakhovka HPP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Olha and her daughter November 11, 2022, the day Kherson was liberated<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Olha’s house was located near the river, so the water started to fill it in the first hours after the Kakhovka HPP was blown up, she says: The only thing separating us from the river was the rails \u2013 they are slightly higher than the river level. The water was not supposed to reach us \u2013 the rails remained completely dry. But there were storm drains under them. They were not closed. In 15 minutes, the stream moved 40 meters. The speed was very high.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n