Nina Vasilievna is 74 years old. Before the war, she lived in her house with her daughter, son-in-law, and two granddaughters. She was glad that her daughter and her husband started building their own house. Nina Vasilievna refurbished her house so that her granddaughters, even after moving to their own house, would love to come and visit their grandmother. Nina Vasilyevna and her passed husband built the house with their own hands. With warm feelings, she recalls how 45 years ago, she and her husband dug up the foundation for their future home with shovels. When the war began, Nina Vasilievna and her family hid in the house’s basement. A couple of days later, her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughters left because the girls were terrified. Nina Vasilievna could not believe that the war would last long and refused to leave.
A day later, power, gas, and internet were gone. She did not know how serious everything was; she was only horrified that everything around her was on fire and something was constantly exploding. On March 7, her eldest son came for her from Kyiv, and he explained how bad the situation was and took Nina to Ivano Frankovsk to her relatives.
When Nina returned, her home didn’t exist. Everything was in construction debris, fragments of brick, metal, and glass. Now she lives in a tiny little room where her granddaughters were playing dolls in the summer. It was their wigwam, but only with real walls. She insulated the door with a blanket and lives there. She put a heater there in order not to freeze, but the electricity often goes out, so she is very cold. She made the kitchen in the pantry, behind the wall of the room. Her brother-in-law put a gas stove there for Nina to cook. To heat the place up, they put a brick on a furnace: it spreads the heat better. That’s how Nina warms herself when there is no light. She also does laundry in the same makeshift kitchen. To get from the kitchen to the room, you must walk out on the street, further complicating the situation. The daughter of Nina Vasilievna with her husband and daughters made one room in their house (under construction) livable and are living there, four of them in one room; there is simply nowhere to take her.
To Ukraine With Love and WelcomeNST are partnering to build a $23,000 home for Nina Nazarenko
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