Each of our meetings with IDPs is filled with stories that are extremely touching because of people’s courage, bravery, and pain. These stories are rich with tears, love, and hugs. Each of them passes right through us and stays imprinted in our hearts. We continue the cycle of stories of people who were forced to leave their homes because of the war. The second story is about entrepreneurs from Mariupol:
The story of this family from the shelter of the Maltese Relief Service of Ukraine has spread all over the world. The Dmitriev family, being displaced for the second time and having lost everything in Mariupol, did not give up and opened their restaurant with their friends in Lviv.
Until 2014, their family lived near the airport in Donetsk. They moved several times away from the war and were living 5 years near Azovstal in Mariupol. On February 24, waking up to the sounds of explosions and flashes in the sky, they made another difficult decision – to leave the burning city and move to Lviv.
“On February 24, we woke up at 5 am from the sounds of explosions and flashes in the sky. At first Stanislav went to look for a shelter, we started stocking up on food and water. I told my husband that we had to get out – if we don’t leave today, we will never get out. We first went to Zaporizhzhia, and I prayed throughout the whole trip for that everything to be okay. It was very scary from the sounds of explosions. We saw our military and I thought: “God help them,” says Daria, “There was no schedule at the railway station in Zaporizhzhia, we just had to wait. When the train arrived, there was a sea of people, and only with the help of her husband she managed to squeeze into the carriage. Mothers with children were allowed into the compartments, others were riding in the aisle. There were 10 people in our compartment. It took us 20 hours to get to Lviv.”
At first, Daria and Stas and their children lived in one of the shelters run by the Maltese Relief Service. “We finally felt safe in the shelter. Lviv sank into our hearts, and we want to respond to the warm welcome. Volunteers from the shelter are like our godparents. In Lviv, thanks to the people, I felt the breath of life and realized that I want to be here, I want to try again for the third time – for the sake of children and the future. We, like every Ukrainian, work on our own front and show by our example that we are unbreakable,” says Daria.
They show a photo of the remains of the house in Mariupol where they lived, nothing is left of their business. “I’m so tired of running somewhere, saving myself, being afraid. I want to live, to live in my country,” says Daria.
Daria and Stas and their friends had two establishments in Mariupol. Today they are rebuilding their business in Lviv. Stas is a professional chef and develops the menu himself. Daria deals with customers. They are proud of their work and can talk for hours about rolls and sushi.
The story of this family is a vivid example of the resilience of Ukrainians and an incredible motivation for our Ukrainian team “Malteser Relief Service”, which has been working non-stop since the first day of the full-scale war!
