The Holub family is from Semenivka in Chernihiv region. In spring 2023, the parents and their three children were forced to evacuate to Chernihiv.

“When an aerial bomb hit near our house and my husband was concussed, it was clear that staying at home was dangerous. You never know where the next one will land,” says 35-year-old Yevheniia Holub.

“The bomb flew literally over my head and fell 30 metres away into the neighbours’ sewer next to the bathhouse. What a blast!.. The neighbours were wounded. I survived by a miracle! Instinctively I took a few steps behind the summer kitchen, and it shielded me from the shrapnel. I thought that was it… I will never forget that jet roar!” adds Andrii, the head of the family.

The Holubs hastily packed their belongings and, together with their three young children, settled in an unfinished summer house on the outskirts of Chernihiv.

“Because of constant shelling, living in our native Semenivka became impossible. People were dying, it was frightening. The children took a very long time to recover, and I will say this: they will probably never fully restore their psychological state. I miss my hometown, my home. In the first year I used to go there, enter my house, which has no windows, no doors, but these are our own walls. I remember how my husband and I got married and the first thing we did was renovate. We turned a tiny cottage into a very beautiful house with all the utilities. We wanted to live in Semenivka. My husband took up farming, we privatised land, took a tractor on credit and started growing pumpkins. And now everything is destroyed, the fields are mined…” shares Anastasiia’s mother.

The new home was completely unfit for living. Over one summer, Andrii built a stove himself and insulated the house. Two years later, the place is unrecognisable.

Thanks to volunteer support, the Holubs fitted everything out with their own hands, built a shed and started a small farm.

The husband found a job, and the children enrolled in schools: 13-year-old Oleksandr is in 7th grade, 11-year-old Anastasiia is in 6th, and 7-year-old Alisa is a first-grader. Yevheniia was also able to find her path.

She is a hairdresser by profession. In Chernihiv, she opened an express hair salon with affordable prices so the business would get going faster.

“I had no money to open it. None at all. Not a single kopiyka. The first support was a state grant from ‘eRobota’. Then I received a grant from a women’s consortium, and we bought manicure equipment. With the following grants – everything else needed for work. There are many opportunities for business development now. International organisations and the state support this. If you want to work, hire employees and pay taxes, you will get help,” says Yevheniia.

The Holubs’ greatest dream is peace, so that missiles no longer fly and people no longer die.

It is peace and a family of doves that 11-year-old Nastia depicted in her drawing.

“Doves are a symbol of the peace our family dreams of. And our surname, Holub, means ‘dove’. The drawing is about calm and happiness in our native country, where every child is happy in their family, in their home, on their land,” the young artist explains.