From searches to a speech in Davos: the path of a Kherson volunteer

255 days in occupation, Russian searches, rescuing the most vulnerable, grief brought by high water and daily work under fire. All this is the life of Olha Tsilynko, a Kherson psychologist and director of the NGO "Sofia Family Rehabilitation Center". Despite what she has been through, she has not lost faith in the best and continues to work for others, as she is in charge of 55 Kherson families with children who need special attention.

The main thing is to survive and not lose children

As for all Ukrainians, the full-scale invasion was a time of trial for Olga Tsilynko. In addition to her own family, she had to help the most vulnerable residents of Kherson survive in the new realities. For many years now, Olga has been the director of the Sofia Family Rehabilitation Center, a non-governmental organization that cares about the well-being of Kherson families whose children have central nervous system disorders. So, the first thing she thought about at the beginning of the invasion was how to help them survive in these conditions.

"Like all Kherson residents, I felt confused at first, but I didn't have much time to think about it. I gathered my thoughts and decided that the most important thing was to survive and not lose any children, and we will manage the rest. The first thing I did was to take care of the documentation of our organization, take it out of the office and hide it. Then I realized that we needed to provide everyone with food and medicine, without which some children simply will not survive. So I calculated the available funds and started acting," Olha recalls.

In order to stock up on food and medicine, at least for the first few weeks, the volunteer and her team stood in long lines from morning to night. As time went on, the situation became more complicated, as specific medicines and some foods became scarce, as they used to be in Soviet times. The help of concerned Kherson residents saved the day.

"Our organization has been known in the city for a long time, 15 years this year, so shop owners started contacting me, and everyone who could helped with food. We distributed it to families with children with disabilities. And Kherson residents who managed to leave sent help, as I call it from "Big Ukraine." That's how we managed to raise 20 thousand hryvnias for medicines. Thanks to joint efforts with my friend, we managed to get red prescriptions for medicines from Odesa doctors, and then purchased the vital medicines for the children," the volunteer says.

They tried to transferthe purchased medicines from Odesa to occupied Kherson through volunteer organizations. There was little chance that the Russians would let such a shipment through, but it was the only way and hope for the children's lives. And as it turned out later, the risk was not in vain. A few weeks later, a volunteer car arrived at the woman's house, and with it a pleasant surprise among the occupation's everyday life.

"I was very touched then. Instead of one long-awaited box of medicines, I received 14 huge packages with a supply of baby food, diapers, essential medicines and other necessary things. I even doubted whether it was all for us. The driver replied that as soon as people saw my phone number on the box and the inscription "Tselinka. Children with disabilities", they immediately added something of their own, so my one box turned into 14. Thanks to these caring people, we were able to help everyone who needed it," the volunteer says.

Tortured for 8 days

During the occupation, Olha recalls, the Russians were scouring and setting up shop everywhere. The premises of her organization were no exception. As it turned out later, it was on the top floor above the organization that they located the offices of their special services. At that time, Olha and her family had to take security measures, as they usually stored and distributed accumulated medicines and food there.

"When we discovered this 'neighborhood' we decided to go into hiding. To do this, we invented a legend that made everyone's teeth fall off. Every time they asked us about our presence, we answered that there used to be a child development center here, our children studied here, so we get together and buy groceries together, as if it were cheaper in such difficult times. By some miracle, they believed us and didn't touch us," the woman explains.

Realizing that none of the Russians are welcome guests for the local population and fearing sabotage, the occupiers organized searches and checked every house. Olga Tsilynko's house was not spared.

"They tormented our neighborhood for 8 days. They came in large groups using thermal imagers, always looking for our guys. For ordinary civilians, such an action was a psychological test. They examined every corner of my house. At first, they didn't like my embroidered shirts, then the amount of canned food, so there was a question: "Are you going to feed the children?". But my mom must have prayed for me a lot, and by some miracle they left. But all those searches, the intense pressure and the feeling of defenselessness were just killing me," Olha recalls.

The cemetery of my happy life

Even after the de-occupation of the right bank of the Kherson region, the Russians continued their abuse by blowing up the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station. It was then, in a matter of hours, that Olha lost what she had been building for a significant part of her life - her own home. Her house stood near the river, so in the first hours after the explosion, water began to fill the yard.

"The only thing separating us from the river was a railroad track, and there were storm drains under it. In 15 minutes, the stream moved 40 meters. The speed was very high. A lot of silt, dirt, unexploded mines and other things flowed down with the water. Now our house is completely uninhabitable. It is now a cemetery of our happy life. I almost didn't have time to take anything out, but we managed to save ourselves and help our elderly neighbors, and we also saved the animals. After that, we started living again. The whole town," Olha says with despair.

But this did not break Olha or her children. For some time they had to live in the premises of a public organization. Caring people learned about Olha's lost home and supported her in any way they could. This actually helped her find the strength to start from scratch.

Special attention and support

Today, Olga continues to work and provide social services to the families with whom she overcame all the difficulties of the war. Their lives were difficult even before the full-scale invasion, and now the situation of such families has become much more complicated.

"It is hard for everyone at this time, but we must realize that there are those who have it harder. Now they need special attention and support. Previously, mothers of such families all worked, but now they have almost no such opportunities. This is the life of a frontline city. These people are left with only one pension, which at most can be up to 4000 thousand hryvnias. It is very difficult to survive on such funds, having children with central nervous system disorders. So we provide them as much as we can," says the volunteer.

In addition to humanitarian support, Olga also makes sure that mothers from such families receive psychological support, so she involves them in working with psychologists at the school of conscious parenting set up by the organization. Before the invasion, the psychologists also worked with children, but with the war, they had to reformat their work. Now, classes with children are almost never held.

"Although we have a shelter, we need to react quickly during an alarm in a frontline city, and it takes a lot of time to evacuate children in wheelchairs and strollers. That is why we organize various events for them in safe areas whenever possible. For example, last summer, thanks to the support of local authorities and sponsors, we were able to take children with motor disabilities for rehabilitation in Ternopil region. It was a real breath of fresh air for the families. After the terrible round-the-clock shelling, they got a little bit of silence in the comfort of the trees, with rehabilitation exercises and sessions with a psychologist. This is what they need," says Olga.

They plan to repeat the trip this year. They also hope to take families with children to the Mykolaiv zoo on Children's Day. However, this childhood dream will be realized only if they have the financial means.

We have to help each other

Olha is a psychologist by training, so volunteering in her life is viewed from a completely different angle. The woman notes that she cares about others not because she feels obligated to do so, but because these are her life principles and her personal religion.

"Although I am a psychologist, I am a categorical opponent of the inflated theory of personality. I am for social activity, for the fact that a person cannot survive without society. And I have a lot of evidence for this. The most striking of them is Kherson during the occupation. By uniting and helping each other, we were able to go this way to freedom. My children, who were minors at the time of the invasion, also could not just sit still, they needed society and were part of it. Together with me, they delivered milk to the orphanage, set up a field kitchen with the girls who lived with us and helped lonely elderly people, fed abandoned animals. All this is clear evidence," the psychologist notes.

The same, she emphasizes, applies to helping our defenders. She started supporting and helping the military back in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea. Back then, together with her friends, she baked various delicacies and traveled to the border with the peninsula to support, warm and feed our soldiers.

"It is also important to understand that this is not about duties, but about humanity and understanding that the guys are part of our society and they should not be left alone with their problems. They are protecting us there, and we have to support them from the rear, because we are all one," emphasizes Olga.

Olga continues to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine even now. Together with the families of the center, she collects parcels with essentials once a month and sends them to the front line. Together with her son, she also tells the international community about the Russian occupation and why our defenders should be helped in the fight against the Russians. In January 2023, they spoke as part of the Ukrainian delegation in Davos, and this May they will talk about the faces of the occupiers at the International Conference on the Security of the Black Sea Region in Bucharest.

Olga is firmly convinced: "We all have to understand that we can save this world only by uniting. We cannot live only for ourselves. We have to help each other. A person cannot live only in their own bubble. Remember, if everyone starts thinking only about themselves, it will be the beginning of a quick end!"

All photos were provided by the interviewee.

The work on this material was made possible by the Fight for Facts project, which is implemented with the financial support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Анна Шаповал