It has been more than 33 days, and the Ukraine war is still far from over.
Thousands of students were stuck in Ukraine when the Russian invasion started. Most of them have managed to return to their homeland safely.
The mother of an Indian student shares a heartfelt letter with Lucify.ch that she wrote while she was waiting anxiously for her girl to return home from Ukraine.
„Dear God, all I want is for her to come back.“ This is all I could write when I tried to pen down my emotions while waiting for my daughter to come back from the war zone,“ shares a mother whose prayers were answered as her daughter returned home safely from Ukraine.
It’s the worst nightmare for us and any parent to see their child in a war zone. It was only two months since she had moved to Kharkiv to pursue her dreams of becoming a doctor. She used to send us so many videos and photos of the beautiful city and her university and was very excited for her next six years. Little did we anticipate that she would witness a real war situation.
„When we heard the war was declared, we were scared and panic-stricken. Her flight to India was already scheduled, but it was canceled due to a conflict. We could not do anything, not even think of anything at that moment,“ she shares.
„Their phones are on, so we are in touch, but to listen to their deteriorating conditions, is heartbreaking. They don’t have enough food or blanket, and living amid the continuous bombarding is unreal and feels like something that suddenly emerged from the history books,“ reads the letter.
„Kids said they did not have meals or enough water. Can’t express what it feels like to hear this from your child.“
„I am miserable, but I need to have hope. Hope that would give her strength to be strong.“
„I kept reminding myself this because this was the only thing I could do,“ the mother shares with Lucify.ch.
What was worse was that we had sent our daughter despite strong resistance from certain people in our extended community. This was when these people thought of getting back to us with comments like, „we told you so.“
„In the case of family support, it’s more negative than positive. The relatives were initially not in favour of a girl studying outside the country. Then, when the war happened, they called us to ask us why we had sent her there? As if we knew that the war would happen!“ the mother says.
Some of the comments on social media were also ruthless. For example, some trolls commented that these students stuck in Ukraine deserve to be stranded because they left their country.
„Every parent works really hard to provide their children the best education. We did send our daughter so that she could fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor. We had to work on many things, including the financials and how to handle the mindsets and comments of the relatives around before sending her there,“ the mother shares.
„We feel so numb about all the negative comments surfacing around. We are already very stressed, but these comments make us more disturbed. People need to be more sensitive to our situation as we are already worried about our child’s well-being. We just wish to see our kid safe and sound out of war. Nothing else matters,“ she writes in the letter.
