What is the most precious thing you can give others? You can give them your warmth, that is, the warmth of your heart, of your deeds and thoughts. You don’t need to wait for a special occasion to do something good. There is always a reason for it, simply because you can always find someone you can make warm with your caring heart!
Start
Vision and mood
“We are from Mariupol, Ukraine” Ilona says, and my heart sinks. Mariupol is synonymous with pain for all of us… What words can you find for a person from the city of pain, the city of horror, the city of unspeakable tragedy?
“I’m with you — these are the best words of support,” the girl says. “Because it is true! We feel people’s incredible kindness and support, thoughtfulness, and care. It fills my heart with warmth and love!”
Step 1. Surviving in Mariupol
“The war caught us in our hometown,” Ilona says. “We have a house, so we decided to stay at home till the end of the shelling. No one could imagine what horror was waiting ahead… The city was under a blockade from the very beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. The gas, electricity, and water supply broke in a matter of days; the shelling became more and more intense, and we practically lived in the basement, went outside occasionally. Some relatives came to us because they thought it would be safer here, so seven adults and a two-month-old baby ended up in a small basement together.”
“We were lucky to have a solid fuel burning appliance, so we cooked food on top of it. Although, to be honest, we all were so shocked and stressed, simply not up to eating or drinking anything.
I don’t remember a single quiet day. The shelling became heavier and heavier, in the beginning airplanes were dropping bombs on us every two hours, and then they did it almost 24 hours a day. A shell hit a car near our house, it exploded, and we decided that we had to leave. It was also very dangerous: at that time, on March 15, there was no possibility to leave Mariupol through the evacuation corridors, but we decided that if we had just a small chance of coming out of there alive, then it was worth using it.”
“We had 10 minutes to pack, so we took the most basic things and went to our relatives in the village. And the next morning a neighbor called us and said that our house was hit and destroyed completely… Looking at the photos of the terrible charred ruins, we realized that our departure saved our lives. If we had left a few hours later, we all would have remained under the ruins of the house. Perhaps that is why we did not grieve for the lost property, there were no tears and despair, we were happy to survive instead, happy that we did not stay there. But later we realized that apart from a few hastily grabbed warm sweaters and an electric car with the charge enough for less than a hundred kilometers, we had nothing. Nothing at all.”
“We had a hometown, so beautiful and cozy, we had work, home, and friends, we had everything to be happy, to work, live and enjoy life, and all of this was destroyed by the invaders. My grandmother, my mother and I, lived together. More than sixty years of grandma’s life remained under the rubble of the house…”
Step 2. Warmth comes from care
“Going out of the city was difficult and took a long time. Fortunately, we found a volunteer who agreed to drive us to Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, — three women with two dogs and a cat who lived through all the shelling in the basements with us, and we would never leave them behind! We lived in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, Ukraine, for several months, found shelter in a volunteer center there, people treated us wonderfully and helped us a lot with everything. Later, in search of work, we decided to move to Kyiv, and have been here for about two months.”
“All this time, we were touched by people’s incredible desire to help. When we first left Mariupol, volunteers immediately started saying, “Here, have some fresh and hot food to eat, and here we have collected some things, take what you need.” We thanked them and refused, it was uncomfortable for us, because earlier, we had been used to helping others often, and it suddenly turned out that we needed help too.”
“We are very grateful to Goodacity for the blankets, for care and warmth! Warmth is coming not from the radiators; it is something born from people’s hearts. Each of us can make others warm with attention and care… When you see that you are not alone, you understand that everything will be fine! We are united, we are together, and I am happy to live in the country of such remarkable people! We look to the future with optimism and have so much hope for the liberation of our city.”
“My second cousin, who stayed in the occupied territory, visited the ruins of our house. I asked her to take a souvenir for me, and she took a teddy bear. Its arms and legs were a bit torn, but my sister washed him, and it is waiting for us at home. I am sure that we will return to our Ukrainian Mariupol and start rebuilding our house brick by brick. And I will place this teddy bear there as a reminder of everything we have been through, as a symbol of resilience and endurance. All of us, Ukrainians, are now symbols of indestructibility!”
Finish
Time to sum it up
Kindness is always there if there are Ukrainians. And everyone who lends a helping hand to others contributes to our Victory. Victory of good over evil, light over darkness, victory of values, humanity, and life itself!
You can afford yourself the luxury of goodness!
Doing good is very simple!
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