The girls live together with their parents at the front line of the East of Ukraine in the city of Avdiivka.

In the beginning of the Anti-Terrorist Operation, the children lived in a house nearby a military checkpoint. Heavy explosions left their house without window glass. In winter 2015, there was no heating in the house, so the house residents were closing their windows with any materials they could find. The cracks were covered with carpets and everyone lived in the same room.

After a while, the children moved to another area of the city with the help of the soldiers.

This is what the mother remembers:

“My husband was working his shift at the factory. The shootings began in the living areas of the city. There was no light. And then I heard: “Bam!”

It was so close and I realised that they were bombing our area. I quickly grabbed the girls and we then lied down on the  floor at night and listened, hugging each other. Then, there was another “Bam!” and everything started shaking. The glass dropped down. It happened six times…The girls did not cry at all. They never cried.”

The girls are kind and well-mannered, they are ordinary, nice girls who are now in the midst of shootings in Avdiivka.

The city of Avdiivka is not only associated with war but also with powerful and unsafe factory, that is, the Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant.

As a consequence of the production, the contamination of the environment has a serious impact on the life and development of local children. As a result, Karyna, the eldest sister, has developed the arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia, the phenomena of WPW.

The child needs additional medical check-up to determine further treatment, which her family cannot afford.

After the war conflict had re-escalated in the winter of 2017, the girls were temporarily evacuated to the safety zone, located 30 kilometres away from the city.

Children from the East of Ukraine are waiting for your help. Please donate to help Hanna and Karyna, marking your donation as ‘For Hanna and Karyna Serdyuk’.

Avdiivka