Her joy at that moment hides the fear she shows every time the calm around the 17th century monastery where she, her sister and her mother have found refuge, is broken by a loud noise from a car or an aircraft above . The eight-year-old has cerebral palsy and can not speak. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Zhuravel spends her days walking in the gardens with her girls and eating with other refugees. The locals helped her find a swimming pool to resume treatment for Aleutina and dance lessons for her eldest daughter Victoria, 12 years old. The guards who helped them at the border as they left their home return to check on the family. (Open to see a picture package) “The children were really scared of the sirens and the explosions,” said Zhuravel, 38, as he pushed Alevtina through the monastery’s vast gardens into a specialized pram. “Aleutina is still very scared,” Zuravel said. “She is under constant stress and we try to distract her by going to the pool and taking walks. We try to walk as much as possible and play outside and little by little she succeeds.” The six nuns who run the monastery provide meals in the cafeteria and the locals have helped with financial aid, clothes and toys, which include two teddy bears perched on the window sill of their small room. But every day since they arrived in Poland on March 12 brings different challenges. When a helicopter hovered overhead, the usually smiling Aleutina curled up in a ball as her eyes filled with fear because of the noise Zhuravel says her daughter is associating with the war. SUITCASE PACKAGED Zhuravel wanted to stay in Ukraine, but her son insisted on fleeing because the bombings and explosions were terrifying for Alevtina as the villages near their town came under attack. Russia has denied that it targeted civilians in what it calls a “special military operation” to demilitarize Ukraine. The family first went to the other side of town, but the next morning, March 10, they were persuaded to leave, Zhuravel said. “She forced us to leave,” she told Reuters, referring to her 18-year-old son who was a student before the February 24 invasion of Russia. “He said, ‘Mother, how are you going to hide with Aleftina?’ sirens, Alevtina is afraid of everything “. The family boarded a train to Lviv with their pet dog Luna before taking the road to Poland, where Zhuravel recounted the kindness of the volunteers who helped them find shelter and the guards who carried the Alevtina stroller across the borders. The fighting has displaced more than 10 million people and forced more than 4 million to flee Ukraine in Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since the end of World War II, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. More than half of the refugees – like Zhuravel and her daughters – have crossed into the European Union via Poland, which shares a 500-kilometer (310-mile) border with Ukraine. Other refugees have moved to other cities or countries, but Zhuravel chose to stay in Jaroslaw, 40 km from the border, so that she could be close enough to return to her son and her hometown as soon as possible. “I wake up every morning hoping that someone will call me or text me that we can go home now,” he said. “Every day, that’s all I’m waiting for. Our suitcase is full and we’re just waiting for a call.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Writes Michael Kahn. Edited by Alison Williams Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
