Varvara, 14 years old, (please look also here)
 

»I have no siblings and my parents are separated, but they both live in Kyiv. I have many relatives, cousins, uncles and aunts in the Donezk area and initially they stayed for a time in Kyiv too, but then they moved back again due to work and school.
On 17. May 2014 I went from Luhansk, my birthplace, to Kyiv. When the war started, my mother moved to Poland for work and I stayed with my mother's colleague in Kyiv at this time. When my mother came back from Poland, the war really started in the East and we remained in Kyiv.
Since I thought primarily that I would stay just for a few weeks in Kyiv, I took only one bag with shirts, some pants and two pairs of shoes from Luhansk. One has forwarded me things later and we have also received humanitarian aid.
When I lived in the Donezk area, I only noticed the beginning of the war, for example, how the office of the secret service was occupied. And I saw several people with guns who cruised around.
In the past, I always liked it to sit on the window seat in a marshrutka (shared taxi), but when the war started my mother asked me not to sit right by the window.
I'm visiting a high school in Kyiv with a focus on physics and mathematics. This year I was not so good at school, but next year I'll try harder. When I started the school in Kyiv, I was not motivated and therefore I had a bad relationship with my teachers. I have three very good friends, they know a lot about me and my old life, because I have told them so much about me.
I have hardly any contact to my old friends from the Donezk area, as many of them began to write about politics and I did not like this. My mother told me also to be careful with political statements in social media. So when it comes to politics, I avoid the conversations.
Besides the school I attend a theater group and another group where I sing. I'm pleased about clothes and cakes.
I was afraid of dogs in the past, but now I have fought this fear and at the moment my biggest fear is losing close relatives.
I miss my old room in Snezhnoe and my guinea pig which I have left as a gift to a friend there.
I used to have many beautiful books and toys. At the beginning of the war, I often dreamed that someone of my friends is kidnapped and something happens to him, but now it's OK.
My wish is to see my relatives again who don't want to come to Kyiv. They don't want to come here, because they say that they were born there and have adjusted to this place and therefore they prefer this place to Kyiv.
I'm still not sure what I'll do in the future. First, I hope that I will finish school and maybe I want to be a translator, psychologist or psychotherapist. Or maybe also a singer or actress.
I would like to say that I have started a project for child refugees, named All children have a kind heart. I do this because many child refugees are missing things, for example clothes, books, pencils or exercise books. My girlfriend helps me. I write about my project in social media, I speak with friends and my mother, who is working for Vostok-SOS, and who supports me with my project. If someone would like to donate or has something to give away, then he can bring it to the office of Vostok-SOS.
So far, there are not so many people who bring something. Sometimes, child refugees come along with their parents and then I talk to them.«

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