Resilience and strength of a mother who fled the war in Ukraine

When the war in Ukraine escalated, Yulia fled from the town of Trostyanets with her husband and one year old twins to Poland. The family travelled to Cyprus before settling in the Czech Republic in June 2024.

“My mother and father stayed in Ukraine. My brother volunteered to join the army. Our city was under occupation for a whole month. They lost all mobile connection, I could not contact my mother, my brother, or my father for more than 15 days, that was the worst feeling,” recalls Yulia.  

“It hurts to watch what happened to our city, it used to be green, beautiful, pleasant. And when I saw all the black destroyed buildings, the train station, the broken houses, I just wanted to cry and scream.”

In Ukraine, Yulia had her own acrobatics studio, where she organized acrobatics, dance and ballet classes for children and later taught classes in Kyiv after moving there when her children were born.

“I have been doing acrobatics since I was three years old. I had my own studio in Trostyanets, I love teaching children and sports, I love dancing. When we arrived in the Czech Republic, I was thinking about opening a studio here and teaching children.” 

In October 2022, Yulia started to feel sick and couldn’t move her hand. She fainted and was taken to a hospital in an ambulance. It was first suspected she had suffered an epileptic seizure, but a CT scan and MRI showed a 5cm tumour in her brain.

“I thought it's just such stress, nerves. I could have died not knowing about this tumour, but it happened as it happened. The pressure from the tumour caused me to faint. I had a surgery and found out it was malignant.” Yulia recalls. “I had 30 sessions of radiation therapy in parallel with chemotherapy for six months.” 

When she was feeling the worst, Yulia went to Ukraine to stay with her mother for a bit of time, while her children and husband stayed in the Czech Republic.

“I've been staying in Trostyanets at the time, and I've heard all these explosions, heard all these sirens, drones were flying over our house at night, it was very scary.”

Eventually, Yulia started to get better. She returned to the Czech Republic and is now trying to create a new life for her family and start working again. She found a play and learning centre for refugee children from Ukraine and signed her boys up.

“When I was prolonging my visa, a social worker told me about the play and learning centre and I sent them there. I wanted to start working and needed them to be looked after. They are now three years old and attending an adaptation group that is part of a kindergarten and so far have mostly friends who speak Ukrainian and Russian. But we all started to learn Czech.”

The Play and Learning Centre at the Kindergarten Nad Stolou serves as an adaptation group for Ukrainian refugee children aged 3-5 who cannot be enrolled into regular kindergartens due to the lack of capacities. It provides a safe space, play and learning activities and Czech language classes, which are critical for young children's wellbeing and adaptation. A lot of attention is paid to psychosocial support for the refugee children, many of whom have experienced traumatic events, as well as to intensive support and communication with their parents. The space is one of more than 70 early childhood education and care centres supported by Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in partnership with UNICEF nationwide.

To be able to secure more income, Yulia has been learning 3D visualization. The last step is opening her own dance and acrobatics studio in Prague.

“I have always been very active, doing sports. I have been doing acrobatics for 16 years. When I studied at university, I even went to China doing ballet and acrobatics at a circus and when I returned, I did aerial acrobatics and gymnastics. Due to cancer, I have a disability card, I still have to go to an MRI and do tests every 3 to 4 months, but I aim to overcome disability and start working. I am already looking for some space to rent, I want to get a Czech language certificate and then will open the studio,” says Yulia about her plans for the future.