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“When I was little, I watched World War II movies with my grandfather. There were women running behind the train waving to their husbands. And now it was me,” recalls Kyiv fashion designer Tatjana for spring 2022.
It is Sunday and we are sitting in the garden of the Family House in Novy Bor, where the “local Ukrainians” celebrate the Orthodox Easter.
Traditional shashliks are being grilled (some of them have been working on their preparation since the morning when a freshly butchered ram was brought to them) and many other Ukrainian specialties were waiting for the visitors along with the prospect of a pleasant time spent.
In the Family House, war refugees can take advantage of weekend Czech language courses or the services of a psychologist. Thanks to the financial support of People in Need, she comes to Nový Bor once every three weeks and currently helps around ten people. One of them is Tatjana, who came to the Czech Republic two years ago after the battle for Kiev ended in Ukraine.
“I didn’t want to leave. I had my husband and my grandmother there. But the son was in a bad way,” he says.
“We were bombarded a lot, friends left and only two families remained in our multi-story house. When he stopped sleeping, eating and talking, my husband said we had to leave. I wanted to take my mother with me, but she was old and didn’t want to. She died a year ago.’
Photo: Michal Turek, Seznam Zpravy
Fashion designer Tatyana left Ukraine in April 2022.
Due to health problems, Tatjana is relatively limited when it comes to looking for work. But she managed to start a business in the Czech Republic and today she more or less continues what she did in Ukraine.
However, she exchanged the high fashion of the capital for that of Novi Bor, and in her workshop sweaters or winter hats and scarves are created.
The beginnings in the Czech Republic were difficult for her and her son. She left her previous home in three hectic days and did not speak Czech, which made it very difficult for her to socialize. However, the family in the center found her a place to live with one of the glassmakers in Novobor, where everything turned for the better. Working in the glass factory even excited her son so much that he decided to learn the trade.
Help in Nové Bor
Ukrainian refugees who left their country after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022 have been helped in the town of 12,000 people in the north of Bohemia almost from the beginning.
“For the year 2023, we have helped about 70 adults. They use the citizen counseling service the most, which is one of the registered social services that our Family in the Center provides,” Petra Vlčková, the director of the organization, which started helping Ukrainian refugees essentially immediately after they arrived in the Czech Republic, told Seznam Zprávy.
The family in the center is not the only project that Ukrainians in Novoborsk support. Vlčková specifically mentions, for example, the Smetánek Children’s and Youth Center and also highlights the work of the city management, which the organization has been ably coordinating since the first days.
“I am grateful to all the people in the Czech Republic who help Ukrainians. It means a lot to us, I will never forget it,” Tatjána repeats several times during our interview. “I don’t know if you can understand. It’s terrible to run away from war and see the bombs and all the blood. It’s something you won’t forget.”
In addition to the relief for her health, the business is also beneficial for her because she is the mistress of her time. She can react quickly if her daughter and grandchildren want to come to her from Ukraine or if her husband gets a vacation. The story that her partner is training young Ukrainian soldiers today at the front brought tears to her eyes.
Photo gallery from Ukrainian Easter celebrations
This year, Orthodox Easter fell on Sunday, May 5, and was also celebrated by Ukrainians in the Czech Republic. See how the service and the subsequent meeting of the community in Novoborsk looked like.
From butcher to roofer
There are countless stories when the war in Ukraine separated couples and entire families. At least a partial exception is Žeňa, another Ukrainian from Novi Bor. He came to the Czech Republic, where, according to his words, he immediately joined the company, with his whole family in September 2022.
Considering that he is from Donetsk, where the Russians came already in 2014, he said he wanted to leave much earlier.
“I immediately started learning Czech here at Rodina in the center. Classes take place on Saturdays and Sundays, but I also studied at night because I wanted to find a good job. I guess it worked; I understand everything, I speak and I found a job – I do roofs,” says the man who owned a butcher’s shop in his native country, and thus helped prepare the already mentioned ram during the Easter celebrations.
Photo: Michal Turek, Seznam Zpravy
Žeňa has been with her family in the Czech Republic since September 2022.
However, his story is far from rosy either. Žen’s parents stayed in Ukraine. “They are old now, they have a lot of things there, an apartment, a house… They said they don’t want to go anywhere anymore,” he recounts, while the conversation of the full garden rustles around us.
A solid community
According to locals, the beginnings were not easy for anyone; the adults didn’t say much about it, and the children, who had already rubbed themselves today, were said to be clinging tightly to their mothers’ skirts.
“A big reason is that regular Czech language courses were established here immediately after the refugees arrived in Nové Bor. Our two teachers have formed a group of Ukrainians around them, who come to them every weekend, and even though they are from different parts of Ukraine, they have met here and provide each other with moral support,” comments Petra Vlčková, director of the non-profit organization Rodina v centru, on the current friendly atmosphere.
“It’s a really supportive community. Anyone who wants to can participate.”
