For the refugees arriving from the war zone in the background area of Transcarpathia, Ukrainian local authorities have spent the past year either renovating the interior of old schools or hospital buildings or trying to open new accommodation for them. In any case, a significant number of refugees have already lived in several shelters in the past 2 years. Part of the reason for this is that the housing options that suddenly became necessary were generally not ideal for longer stays. The camp beds and mattresses set up in gymnasiums, separated by curtains, and the room-kitchen facilities in extremely neglected buildings, have developed feelings of instability in the already traumatised people/families.

This time, Viki and Nataliya directed the MedSpot medical team to a refugee shelter where a longer time had passed since the previous medical/psychological assistance was provided. They tried to make the building liveable both inside and outside using leftover materials, so each tile on the plinth and inside the rooms had a completely different size, colour and shape. But at least it became cleanable. Here we met 83-year-old Lydia, who complained of earache. While we waited together for her turn to be examined by one of our doctors, Lydia, leaning on her two canes, overriding her age and her situation, cheerfully arrived at the unknown group across the muddy courtyard and began to tell a story. Viki and Natalia took turns trying to interpret the events that had happened to the woman. However, these stories do not disappear from the interpreters’ thoughts/souls without a trace either. They experience each story as if they had witnessed it themselves, thus becoming traumatised too. This – what psychology calls secondary traumatisation – needs to be processed and put in its place just as much as for those who have suffered from the events.

Viki:

 – We were shocked by the story of this old woman. She came to Uzhhorod from Severodonetsk. Unfortunately, she has no children. She is alone. And although she has 2 brothers and her brother has a daughter, they are not with her. She can’t walk very well because she walks with crutches. And when the Russians came in, she found her great-grandfather’s coat. That coat was very warm, and she threw it down into the cellar, where she ran down from the house, got some food and water and threw them down there into the cellar. And she ran down very quickly and then she could only stay there because unfortunately a bomb had fallen on his house and destroyed it. She does not have a house anymore. She told me that when she came out of the cellar, where there was no bathroom (toilet) or other exit, that is, it was not a real shelter, just a village cellar, then the auntie had a stroke. They took her to the hospital, they nursed her a bit, but there it was like, you know, one, two… and keep going. But the hospital was also hit by a bomb, so there was no hope for her to get help there for a long time. That’s when a German aid organisation arrived and rescued her and others from the bombed area. That is how she came here in Uzhhorod. That’s how we met the auntie during our volunteer work – she says, looking lovingly and caressingly at the woman leaning on her crutches.

– The auntie also told us – and it was a great pleasure for us, we even cried with Nati – that there are completely different people here, there are many churches, there are religious people here and someone always helps her. When a person speaks and we listen – Viki adds, as if explaining their feelings – we feel what he says. We take it to the heart and then we wonder what we will do when we find ourselves in a situation like Lydia’s.