Yana Bondar is the Coordinator of the food assistance project.
⠀
On February 24, Yana was at home with her family in Irpen. She didn’t want to believe the news. But when explosions began in Gostomel, the Bondar family realized that this was a reality. After staying in the cold basement for ten days, Yana decided to leave Irpen with her husband and son.
⠀
The Bondar family calls the road between Irpen and Stoianka “a life-long road”, it seemed endless. “We were going to visit our parents in Zhytomyr region. It was very scary, we were afraid that our car would be shot…”, Yana recalls.
⠀
When, a month later, the Bondar family knew that Irpin had been liberated, they immediately started going home.
⠀
“On April 7, when we drove into our native town, we couldn’t immediately recognize it. Ruins, damaged buildings…” But Yana and her husband were determined to stay in the country, rebuild the city and help people.
⠀
A few days later, they saw a large car with the logo of ADRA Ukraine, from which humanitarian aid was distributed. By that time, humanitarian aid had already been distributed in such settlements as Gostomel, Ivankiv, Katiuzhanka, Demydiv, Dymar and others. “The city was just liberated. And here we saw this car … it was such a ray of hope that everything would be fine … ”
⠀
Yana and her husband approached the car and offered their services as volunteers. “On the same day, they gave us a whole carload of food kits and sent us with these food kits to Bucha,” Yana says. This is how the Bondar family began to work in the organization on a volunteer basis. And then she helped to implement more global assistance projects — WFP and Hope for Ukraine. “I’ve seen so many people, so many ruined destinies… It’s hard to see how they rejoice to receive simple bread, although they used to have much more.”
⠀
“Actually, I received emotional and psychological support from ADRA when I got the opportunity to do something. Helping people has helped me to relieve myself and believe in a better future and that everything will be fine. When you realize that you are not alone in your trouble and that you are not left to your own devices – you gain optimism and faith,” Yana added at the end.