Maria's Story, Ukraine

We have hope that we will prevail and emerge victorious.

My name is Mariia Lavriuk. I am an ethnic Romanian from Transcarpathia, in historical Maramures, Ukraine. I spent my childhood in the ethnic Romanian community, in Apșa de Jos, where I attended secondary school in Romanian, and then university in Uzhgorod, in Ukrainian.

After that I spent beautiful period of time at the School of Arts in Apșa de Jos, as a traditional dance teacher and coordinator of the “Apșița” Folklore Group, through which I promoted the preservation of the traditions and customs of our area…

Being an active person since childhood, I always longed to do something meaningful for my community. That's how I founded an NGO in 2017, through which we were able to visit, get to know Romania, and have meaningful projects and partnerships. It was demanding for us as teachers, but also for our students. We made beautiful friendships which made a difference once the war started in Ukraine.

From the first moment you realize that the situation is terrible, life as you knew it is no longer the same. When you receive a lot of calls and messages to take refuge as soon as possible, or they ask you if you need support... then you realize that all the work so far has been worth it.

But intuition tells you something else - fight and help where you feel you have the strength to be able to! This is how the countdown of days started after February 24, 2022... on the 5th day of the war, seeing the wave of refugees that continuously arrived at the customs in Slatina, I decided to go through customs too, but mostly to help the volunteers at the customs with translation.

It was hard, because translators are the first to hear what people fleeing war have been through. But I persevered, I felt useful, and I was happy to be able to help people.

From March to May, I transported and distributed humanitarian aid that kept coming from dear friends in Italy and Romania, being the "Colors for Peace" ambassador in Ukraine. In our village at that time, there were over 3,000 refugees. We opened a collection and distribution center in the School of Arts, where teachers helped the refugees with food and hygiene products. We also sent tens of tons of food to areas seriously affected by the war. At the moment, we are always helping several regiments of soldiers in our area, who are on the front lines.

In July I had the opportunity to join the CNRR team at the Sighetul Marmației Border Crossing Point as a Romanian-Ukrainian-Russian translator. I had already had a period of adaptation to the situation at home, so I accepted taking part in this new experience, full of responsibilities, but at the same time it was enjoyable.

I appreciated the support provided by CNRR to refugees, but also to new employees. I learned many new things, met wonderful people and managed to focus on what was more important at that time. At the same time, I also submitted several grant applications and projects to the Department for Romanians Abroad, through which we managed to help the Romanian community in Ukraine a lot, while at the same time also supporting education in Romanian.

At the moment I wish victory and peace for Ukraine. This terrible and unjustified war has certainly turned us upside down, destroyed our normal life, but we have hope that we will prevail and emerge victorious from the enemies!

Glory to Ukraine!

P.S. Despite the fact that it was and is the hardest period in my life, the positive side is that I met wonderful people this year, organizations and associations that did their best to help an entire country in difficult times, that I felt the humanity, compassion and support of the free world of which we are also a part...

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, wonderful people!

This story is part of the “Human Stories” collection, which illustrates the voices of refugees in our country and their unique experiences. The interview took place in February 2023. Illustrations by Ileana Surducan.