Svitlana Horeva was born on 10th February 1978 in Kremenchuk, Poltava region. Her son, Ostap Tyshchenko, was born on 16th July 2006, also in Kremenchuk. The boy has autism.

Svitlana Horeva is one of the founders of the Special Workshop in Kremenchuk where children, teenagers and young people with disabilities learn and make craft products for sale. Until 24th February 2022, Svitlana coordinated the work of the Special Workshop. And her son Ostap studied at school and attended this workshop.

Фото 18. Остап Тищенко, 16 років. На огорожі біля дерева сидить високий чорнявий підліток. Він у великій чорній толстовці з якимось білим написом англійською, чорній кепці та з чорною сумкою через плече. Остап має розкосі темно-карі очі, прямий ніс, доволі повні губи, високі вилиці й масивне підборіддя. Ліве око хлопця затуляє листя дерева, під гілками якого він сидить.

THE BEGINNING

OF THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

The morning of 24th February 2022 began with a new and disturbing sound — the sound of an air raid alarm.

We heard the air raid, everything was buzzing around. We panicked, we couldn’t understand what to do: whether to grab things and run somewhere or sit. There was a real mess in my head, complete uncertainty, fear, panic”.

Svitlana immediately started packing an emergency backpack where she put literally everything that was at home and could be needed in wartime (bagels, medicines, wet wipes, clothes, matches).

Given that Kremenchuk was in the rear, the family had some time to adapt to the new reality. In the first few weeks after the full-scale invasion, most public institutions did not work (hairdressers, cinemas, clubs). Many people went either abroad or to the western regions of Ukraine, or to the nearby countryside.

At the same time, Kremenchuk became a refuge for people from Kharkiv, Mariupol, Kyiv and other regions where hostilities were taking place.

WAR AND AUTISM

With the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ostap’s anxiety increased but also, there were new ways of overcoming it. For example, he started swearing and repeated all the time that certain Ukrainian cities are going to be bombed out. It is not always that Ostap can understand which action is safe and which is not, so he began to look out the windows during air raid alerts, thus putting himself in danger.

Then, during the air raids, he suddenly stopped sitting between the two walls and started running to the window. He probably wanted to look at the planes. I don’t know how to explain it. But I couldn’t get him behind that wall because he was always reacting like… And as we walked down the street, he was looking at the sky all the time, he waited for something to fly. He was very sensitive to any sounds. He said they were from rockets, that we were going to be shelled”.

It was these circumstances that made Svitlana think about evacuation to a safe place. She started looking for possible options for leaving, seeking advice from friends who also raise children with disabilities.

Svitlana Horeva decided to go with her children to Germany where she found Special Reception, the organization for providing services to people with disabilities that agreed to help them with settling down after the evacuation.

“IT TOOK US SO LONG

TO MENTALLY PREPARE”

Svitlana doubted that her decision to evacuate was right until the last moment. Her husband said he would stay in Ukraine. This further added to her doubts about going abroad.

When we were leaving, the sun was shining so beautifully. My husband was taking us to a minibus that was going to Lviv, and I said: ‘God, what am I doing? I don’t want to go anywhere!’ And he [her husband — editor’s note] was like: ‘Let’s go back.’ I said: ‘I can’t. We already found an apartment there.’ I mean, it was tearing me apart, I really didn’t want to leave”.

Yet, after taking care of all the formalities related to evacuation, on 21th April 2022, Svitlana Horeva and her children Eva and Ostap left Kremenchuk. The next day, 22th April, they arrived to the Ukrainian-Polish border in the Lviv region. Having crossed it on foot, Svitlana and her children found themselves in Przemysl.

From there they went to Wroclaw by train and spent the night in a hostel there.

In Wroclaw we spent the night in a hostel. It was free for us. It was in the city centre, not far from the train station… There also was a shower, and I could finally lie down horizontally. Because in the train we were sitting for eight or ten hours straight”.

On 23th April, Svitlana, Ostap and Ewa went by train to Berlin. A large canteen for Ukrainian refugees and an information centre were set up at the railway station of the city.While waiting for the train to Bremen at the train station in Berlin, Ostap got lost. Still, they managed to catch their train.

Фото 12. Остап і Єва сидять за столом у сірому довгастому приміщенні з низькою стелею. Уздовж стіни тягнеться ряд із простих дерев’яних столів і лав. Остап у чорній кепці та чорно-білій куртці сидить перед тарілкою із залишками супа. Він флегматично дивиться кудись перед собою. Поряд — Єва приблизно братового віку, одягнена в чорну кофту з червоним капюшоном і джинсову куртку. У дівчинки темне волосся до лопаток і, як у мами, великі круглі карі очі, прямий ніс, вузькі губи та гостре підборіддя. Єва сидить перед порожньою пластянкою та з усмішкою дивиться в об’єктив. Позаду сновигають чи їдять люди з сумками та валізами.

The children went to the toilet, and I decided to wait for them, to watch the bags. There were 25 minutes left before our train to Bremen leaves. And then I saw my daughter going back alone, without my son. I froze in fear. I said: ‘Where is he?’ And it turned out she lost him. I mean, it’s not that she lost him, but he lost himself. He didn’t wait for her. He went to wander somewhere around the station… I was terrified… I ran to the volunteers, I cried. I said, like, here’s the situation, my child got lost, a child with autism… A volunteer took me to the police station or whoever was sitting there… A person who keeps order at the railway station… And before we even got there, I turned around and saw my son”.

“AT FIRST, WE WERE

AFRAID TO GO OUT”

In the evening, Svitlana Horeva, Ostap and Eva arrived in Bremen where they were met by a volunteer who earlier helped them find accommodation. She accompanied them to their apartment.

At first, the woman and her children wouldn’t go out. They felt quite uncomfortable in the new environment. The same local volunteer and the German women who owned the apartment came to the rescue. Little by little, they introduced the family to the city.

Фото 9. Остап позує біля пам’ятнику бременським музикам. Бронзова скульптура на високому постаменті зображує віслюка, собаку, кішку та півня, які стоять одне на одному. Остап тримається за пащу віслюка, похмуро дивлячись у камеру. Позаду — готичний собор та інші старовинні будинки з цегли, що мають охайний статечний вигляд.

Світлана Горєва з сином Остапом Тищенком та донькою, Гамбург, літо 2022 року.

Ostap likes it in Bremen. He visits parks, museums and surrounding cities. However, he has not yet managed to find a social circle among his peers. The boy continues to study at the Ukrainian school online. And workshops like Ostap used to attend in Kremenchuk, in Germany function only for adults with disabilities. Also, Svitlana faced the problem of organising rehabilitation for Ostap. The boy still has not undergone the rehabilitation he needs.

I tried to organise autism therapy for him. But in Germany, there is an extreme bureaucracy… We came to an institution that takes care of children and people with disabilities. I came with a question about this autism centre. We were told that we should apply to such a centre in our area. And so we actually did. We found this centre, went there, and applied. After some time, we received an invitation that we should come to the centre of Bremen, to the main office. Ostap and I were so happy, especially me… And we came. I was sitting there, and this person wrote to me through a ‘translator’: ‘What do you want?’ I look at her, she looks at me. I’m thinking: ‘What do you mean? It was you who invited us, wasn’t it?’ And she’s like: ‘Yes, but all this costs money. This autism therapy, you need money for it.’ It turned out that we needed to go back to where we were sent from, to kind of make a circle”.

“YOU DON’T

REALLY FEEL SAFE”

Svitlana misses her homeland. She tries to keep in touch with the community of the Special Workshop in Kremenchuk. She keeps managing the Facebook page of the workshop and joins online events.

The woman understands that she and her children will stay in Germany at least for the winter. However, recently more and more Russians are coming to this county. The woman and her children do not feel completely safe where they sought refuge from the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The main motive to come here was the need to feel safe, to finally find this safety. And here it turns out that you can’t really feel safe. You walk, you speak Ukrainian with your daughter and you start thinking that someone from Russia is somewhere here… Someone from Russia is going to pick on you. Because things were happening, like, Ukrainian women were beaten for listening to Ukrainian music. I mean, they were doing some regular things, not even standing in the squares with banners or flags… If this keeps happening, if there is such an attitude, if there is discrimination, if Ukrainians are silenced, then most likely, we will return to Ukraine much earlier”.

Svitlana Horeva