Natalia ID:5098 ID: 5098

My daughter’s name is Natalia. She is 9 years old and studies in the 4th grade at a local school. Our family has many children, Natalya has two sisters. We live in a remote mountain village in western Ukraine. The village is small and there is a big problem with jobs. Before the war, people worked in the field of tourism, which began to develop, but with the beginning of the war, tourism became zero. My husband works as a janitor at a local school, earning $150 a month, which is our only income. There is no gas in the village, we heat with firewood, which is very expensive. We spend about 30 dollars on communal services (electricity). To buy firewood for one winter, you need to spend 500 dollars. It is difficult to save money to buy things for the children, since all the money goes to the most necessary things. It is 4 km to get to the school, when winter starts the school bus stops running, as the road is very bad. Our school is old (built in 1903), in need of repair for a long time. There is no dining room, so my daughter is at 8 o’clock staying at school eats cold sandwiches. There is also no gym and children have nowhere to develop their physical condition. There is no adequate computer support. The school is cold, not insulated, because of which the child often gets sick. Natalya dreams of becoming a teacher, teaching children to develop creative abilities. She is very active in class, she likes performing the most, but unfortunately there are no costumes at school, parents sew them themselves. I would very much like the school to have modern technologies, with the help of which it would be convenient for the children to perform, and the audience would be interested in watching the performances. During the war, it became difficult to perform, air alarms sound almost every day, my child often cries because they have been preparing for a long time, but it is not possible to perform. I really want to improve living conditions for my child’s studies. We want the end of war and peace in our country.