My mother abandoned me after I was born and my father died when I was 1,5 years old. My grandmother took care of me for a while, but soon she died as well.

For the last 10 years, I lived with my husband in a town in the Western Ukraine. Unfortunately, for the last couple of years after he left the police forces, he started to drink heavily and to beat both me and the kids. I tried to endure this since I had no place to go with four children. But the kids were saying “Mom, let’s go somewhere, for how long more will he be beating us?”

The last stray was when my husband ruptured my spleen while beating me. It was September 1, and instead of taking my children to school, I underwent surgery in a hospital on that day. Now I have no spleen anymore. The doctor said that if I didn’t undergo surgery immediately, it’d be too late to save me.

My friends helped us leave and we lived in rented apartments. I work as a cleaner, so I’ll be gratuful if you offer me a cleaning job in Lviv.

I was left on the street with four kids since the hostess of the apartment we lived in brought her partner, with whom they drank alcohol the whole time. They kicked us out since I refused to pay rent in advance, our things were thrown outside.

The crisis team brought me into the shelter and now I live here. I’m looking for an apartment to rent and live safely with my children. I need money to pay rent.

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