Title: A Safe Home for Our 3 Sons: Help a Ukrainian Family Finish Their House
Story:
Hello everyone, dear friends and blessings to you all,
We are Oleksandr and Zhanna, parents of three beautiful boys (our oldest is 10, and his two younger brothers were born during our evacuation). We are a hardworking Christian family from Western Ukraine, and like millions of our compatriots, our lives were turned upside down by the war.
To provide for our growing family, I started working abroad in 2017—first in Poland, then in Iceland—saving every single cent so that we could fulfill our biggest family dream: buying a house in Ukraine. We wanted our children to grow up on their native land, close to nature. Together, we managed to buy the house, but it needs a complete renovation to become livable before it is safe for our little boys.
Unfortunately, today our family faces a severe trial. Due to the job market crisis and extremely high housing costs in Iceland, Zhanna and our three children recently had to temporarily return to Ukraine. They are now staying with grandparents in very cramped conditions. I stayed behind in Iceland, trying my best to secure any stable job to support them, but the situation is incredibly difficult. Our hearts break being separated from each other. Our biggest goal right now as husband and wife is to finish the essential renovations so that our family can reunite and the kids can move into a safe, warm, and proper home by next year.
The Heart of Our Story: Why This Place Matters
This house is not just an investment; it is the anchor for our soul. I grew up in a neighboring village called Maiorka (in the Dniester region of Chernivtsi Oblast), spending every summer at my grandmother’s house. My childhood was wild and full of life—I ran barefoot all summer long, explored the deep woods, and spent days down by the Dniester River. To be honest, I was a reckless kid: I got lost in the forest, nearly drowned in the river a couple of times, got an electric shock on my grandma's cellar, and cut my fingers more than once.
My friends and I would play football until the dead of night, wander deep into the fields to sneak peas from the collective farm plots or neighbors' gardens, and steal melons and watermelons. I vividly remember one night when we stayed out looking for peas until late; my grandmother searched everywhere for me and was waiting at home with a switch in her hand. My friends and I also used to go around the local scrap yards to gather any aluminum we could find. We would turn it in for a few coins to trade for dried fish or buy some candies. Sweets were a rarity back then; our favorite treat was just a simple slice of bread dipped into a bucket of water and sprinkled with sugar.
I vividly remember one particular summer when I got a bit too reckless and tried to pull some aluminum wire right from someone's yard. The owner spotted me, and I ran away so fast that I completely tore a pair of flip-flops that my brother had given to me. They were the only summer shoes I had; my only other option was a pair of sneakers completely unsuitable for the woods or rough outdoor terrain. But there was a silver lining to this adventure—I managed to bolt into the woods near the local cemetery and hide there. Another neighbor saw me hiding, but he chose to look out for me. When the furious owner caught up and asked if he had seen a boy running past, the neighbor calmly replied that he hadn't seen anyone. That was how I escaped, but because of the ruined shoes, I had to spend the rest of the summer walking completely barefoot through the forest, rough tracks, and rocky cliffs. My grandmother’s rubber galoshes were incredibly uncomfortable to wear—they were way too big and just slapped loudly against my feet with every step, so I chose to go barefoot instead. This didn't make me sad at all. Looking back, it’s such a warm memory. Not the part about trying to take the wire, of course, but the fact that it was a wonderful summer I spent barefoot, truly connected to the land.
Even now, as an adult, my life remains just as extreme—life constantly throws heavy challenges my way. But I believe that without those childhood adventures, I wouldn’t have this resilience. Life has never been boring, and every hardship has only strengthened my spirit. Those fields shaped who I am.
That is why I absolutely adore this place; it is beautiful. We truly want to pass this torch to our children so that they too can enjoy nature, appreciate life, and grow up there—and later, they can choose their own paths. Perhaps their lives won't be as extreme as mine was, and we certainly have no intention of making decisions for them or idealizing their future. We believe that kids should just be kids. But as parents, we have a deep desire to guide them and support them, and we honestly want them to have a better, more comfortable life than we had.
Even now, every time I return to this land, a profound peace washes over me. Surrounded by the river, the forest, the birds singing from dawn till dusk, and that crisp, clean air—it feels as if time stands still, and all worries fade away. This region is steeped in rich history and memories of a beautiful, simple life: I still remember how people used to work in the stone quarries, burn lime, smoke sweet plums, and bake large round loaves of bread and gingerbread in traditional clay ovens. They would slow-cook rich chicken broths and make traditional meat jellies (studenets). It is the definition of a warm, loving home.
Right next to my childhood village, we managed to buy our house in the historic village of Komariv. It is a breathtaking place by the Dniester River, surrounded by majestic cliffs, where archaeologists discovered a famous ancient Roman glass workshop. It is a very interesting and pleasant place.
This is where Zhanna and I want our three sons to grow up, and this is where we dream of growing old together. We know that the greatest place on Earth is where your family and your history are. Our ultimate prayer is that this war will finally end, our house will be finished, and we will be able to live, work, and enjoy nature on our own soil, completely happy and reunited. I have never been a perfect man, but my deepest desire is to always remain a good human being. I want to always be a loving father to my boys and to never stop loving my wife.
What we urgently need to do (Our Renovation Plan):
The concrete floor screed is already poured and the basic drainage pipes are laid, but to make this house fundamentally livable so that we can step inside and start our lives there, we urgently need to complete the following: https://www.facebook.com/share/19EqrDzxp5/?mibextid=wwXIfr
