No Place Like Home
This is the Gula family: mother Anna, father Sergey, children Yulia (14 years old) and Vlad (4 years old), and wonderful grandfather Alexei (not pictured). The family was evacuated from Makarov in early March. Mom and children went to Poland, where Anna found a job. Grandpa and dad stayed in Ukraine with friends in the village.
At home, Anna had worked at the hospital and had been saving money for a car. When she returned to Makarov and saw that there was no longer a house, she invested everything she had earned in three months in Poland plus the money that she had been saving for a car in the construction of a new house. The family understood that it was expensive to build a new house, but Grandpa said that as long as he was alive, he would build it.
Unfortunately, all the money that the family had was only enough to buy blocks and build walls up to half the required height. This is where their money ended. But the family does not despair…they understand that it will take at least five years to build a new house, but they will fight on.
Now they are living in an old house with just a dilapidated stove for heating the whole place, and it’s very cold there. Little son Vlad survived a heart operation when he was just an infant, and he absolutely must not be cold…so he sleeps with his mom and sister in the same bed so he can keep warm. And Anna heats water in the kitchen they built on the site of a chicken shed, pours the water into plastic bottles, and puts the bottles in Grandpa’s bed to try to keep him warm.
The family must wash in a bucket in the makeshift kitchen outside. Yulia recently broke her arm when she slipped while running to the kitchen from the house in the rain. She says that her main dream is to have her own bed and somewhere to wash in warmth.
The Gula family needs a 3-bedroom house to keep them warm and dry and safe while they continue to work toward rebuilding their home.
The home for Gula family was paid for and is complete! Consider helping other people build their homes.
“We are so grateful that there are people like you! Every day we are overwhelmed with emotions. It is incredible that once again we have a house where we are comfortable and warm, where you rush home to enjoy after work and where happy children and father are waiting for you with grandfather settled down, satisfied.
It is wonderful to watch our son run and jump here. He is so happy. Having lived here for a while, we are overwhelmed with excitement and happiness.
We want you all to know that your work is priceless! Thank you!
-The Gula Family: Anna, Sergey, Yulia, Vlad, and Grandfather Alexei
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