Talking with Irina, a Ukrainian Teen Refugee and Athlete
This summer, I participated in the Maccabi games - an international sports competition for Jewish teenagers to connect with their roots in Israel as well as with other teen athletes from countries around the world. I was team captain of one of the volleyball teams, and throughout the competition I became friends with many other players from many different parts of the world that I’ve continued to stay in contact with, even now that summer is well over.
Some of the best people that I met on that trip were two Ukrainian girls that I competed against in volleyball. Not only were they clearly leading their team, they were also incredibly sweet and friendly people. We were able to get to know each other a bit on the trip, and we talked about our love for our sport and bonded over the experience of the games. We swapped Instagrams to stay in contact somehow after the games ended.
Recently, I reached out again to say hi and see how they were doing now that I had assumed they had arrived back home. One of the girls, Irina, and I ended up DM’ing back and forth for a while, and I learned a lot more about her living situation and how her life was affected by the war in her home country. With her permission, I am sharing the relevant portion of that conversation below, focusing on her incredibly touching story. I was amazed that someone so kind and talented had been through and was still dealing with so much.
C - Chloe
I - Irina
C: So are you back home now tho?
I: Because of the war in Ukraine, I am now forced to live in Latvia(
C: where in Ukraine are you from?
I: Odessa
C: how has it been in latvia?
I: I don't like it here. I want to go to Ukraine, but I can't go there. I don't have anything in Latvia, I live in a rather small town, which is unusual for me. There are no normal shopping centers, no friends, no normal volleyball, I have nothing here, and I did not want to come back here. I felt happier in 3 weeks in Maccabi than I did in a year and a half in Latvia. At Maccabi I had volleyball, lots of friends, entertainment and much more. But in Latvia every day is the same and I feel bad here.
I: Yeah. And I realize that even if I go back to Ukraine now, it will not be the same as it was before the war. Now all my friends and best friends from Ukraine are not in Ukraine. But in many other countries, such as Romania, Britain, Spain, Italy and many others.
C: do you still stay in touch with your friends?
I: Yes, fortunately yes, and that makes me happy, I have a lot of friends, but if we talk about my two best friends, one of them has even become closer during this time, we have only seen each other once in a year and a half. With my other best friend we have a stable good communication, we discuss a lot of things from our lives and dream of seeing each other again because we haven't seen each other since the beginning of the war
C: are there any other Ukrainian people living near you?
I: When we came to Latvia, we were invited here as athletes who had to leave Ukraine, and we thought we would go for 2 weeks, because my dad stayed in Ukraine. We were put in a hotel, and we were given a training base for training, which included visiting the pool, gym, and basketball training, but if you want to go to another sport, you just have to ask the person who watched us. But the problem was that the athletes were basketball players, like my brother. There were 40 athletes in Latvia.
I: But in this city, which is near the sea, was popular only beach volleyball, I do not like it, but there was no choice, so I went there, to study for 2 months, and I no longer want to. But after 3 months of living in the hotel on, transferred to another type of hotel, but by that time were on their way back to Ukraine people 30. We were left with 10 Ukrainians from this group, who were moved to a new place with other Ukrainians, where we still live.
C: are they teenagers also? {the other Ukrainian athletes}
I: Yeah, until I was 18, some had moms, and 2 had sisters, and I was one of the sisters.)
I hope that reading through the story of a normal teenage girl’s situation dealing with a devastating war and now becoming a refugee is as moving to you as it was to me. These real stories that people just like me are living are motivating to me to continue to reach out to the refugees in my community, and to help others to do the same.
