In Ukraine, the state is currently putting all its strength, and almost all its resources, into one thing – winning the war against the invading Russians.
The social safety net, which even before the war was deficient compared to what we are used to in Western Europe, has difficulty competing.
Private actors are stepping in to fill the vacuum, often with the help of international support.
During the communist era, the building was a bakery. Far out in the countryside of southern Ukraine, almost at the border with Romania. Five years ago, sisters Inna and Olga bought the house to revive the bakery, but after a woman asked for a place to sleep because of her violent husband, the sisters slowly but surely began to saddle up.
Now eight women and 14 children live here. Many of the women lack their own family, several of them were ostracized when they became pregnant. Some have been subjected to violence.
One of them is 15-year-old Sasha. She comes from Kherson, the city in southern Ukraine that was occupied by Russian troops early in the war. She tells TV4 Nyheterna that she was constantly afraid in the city, afraid of what the Russian troops could do to young women.
Finally, she decided to flee, in the middle of the night, across the fields, to an area controlled by Ukrainian troops. Her own mother was not there.
– She couldn’t take care of me, Sasha explains briefly.
She was placed in an orphanage but became pregnant after a few months. The father was an 18-year-old man who has “mental problems”, she says. She wants nothing to do with that man, ever again.
When Inna heard about Sasha, she went and got her, and brought her here. To their home run by women, for women and called “A Way to a Home.”
The strength of the community in the absence of the state
The large house is well-kept and in a community room there is a TV and toys. Out on the large plot, Inna has had a playground built. Everything is financed by international organizations, including the Swedish organization Operation Change. But it’s not about large sums: the largest donor is an American foundation that sends $1,500 every month.
The Ukrainian state is not in a position to help. The resources left after Russia launched the large-scale invasion, which also destroyed the Ukrainian economy, go to defending the country.
– The state cannot give us any money, not for us and not for our girls. All the money goes to winning over the enemy,” says Inna.
Hope for a better future
The woman who has lived with Inna the longest is 18-year-old Kristina and her daughter Vlada, who is three years old. Unlike the other women here, she still has contact with Vlada’s father, who is the same age as her. They even got married.
But they don’t meet that often because the father is a soldier, stationed near the capital Kyiv. When he has a free weekend, he comes to visit; and he and Kristina dream about their future.
– I want us to find a home together and that everything goes well for us, says Kristina.
– And I hope that the war ends and that my husband comes back from the military. And everything will be fine.