Elizaveta Pyatigorets (15) is staying at Modlinska as her mother battles cancer in a

Polish hospital in another city. She is from the Kherson region of Ukraine, where she stayed for
more than a year after the war began. After the war started, her mother left Ukraine to go to Poland for medical treatment and during that time she stayed with her grandparents. When her mother was well enough, she returned to get Elizaveta, but her grandparents stayed behind in Ukraine.

Her Story:
“During the winter we did not have electricity and so we had no heat and it was very cold.
Every day I had to sneak out of the house to look for food and to collect snow to use as water.
It was very dangerous. Twice the soldiers tried to kidnap me and force me into their cars and I
was very scared. Both times I managed to escape. It was unsafe to leave the house. I had a very close friend and we used to meet secretly. It was very scary because there were explosions and soldiers everywhere. My friend is now in Russia.”

The Future:
Elizaveta hopes that the war will soon end and that she can return home. She misses her grandparents very, very much.

An Ask For Help:
Elizaveta’s father died when she was one. Her mother suffers a heart condition, for which she
needs hospital treatment. Though health services are free, there is a cost to the medicines she
needs. Elizaveta has been taking a language course at the University of Warsaw, but she wants
to study in Ukrainian. Unfortunately, the only way of studying in the Ukrainian language in
Warsaw is to study at private schools, for which there is a fee (about $200 a month). Financial assistance for school is her major concern.