WAR IS HELL! PLEASE HELP ANASTASIA AND HER CHILD TO ESCAPE.

This is a photo of me, Jean Bodie, with my husband James N Bodie, celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary a couple of months ago.

Realizing that we are 'most likely' in the last decade of our lives – we want to leave a legacy of helping others, especially in these heart-rending times for so many desperate people.

We have previously spent time in South Africa helping people with micro-loans (the Sinzio project) after soliciting the funds required for our project from good folks like you.

Today, we are setting up a GoFundMe account for a dear student and friend of mine.

Under the auspices of an organization asking for volunteers to teach English to Ukrainian students online, to help them gain employment in English-speaking countries. I volunteered.

Anastasia Nygrienko lives in Kyiv and has been my student for more than a year. Weekly we speak face-to-face for an hour and stay in touch via Messenger. She has become very dear to me along with her 8-year-old, deeply traumatized child who must wake up to sirens and try to sleep in a cold parkade – winter is coming again, and they are desperate to escape to Romania. The child is pictured here, attempting to sleep on a pallet. At times, they just go to their bathroom and sleep on the floor or go down to the first floor of their apartment complex for possible ‘safety’.

Anastasia is also suffering from PTSD, and other health problems that require funding. She has serious inflammation and bone loss from abscesses in her gums that are a result of defective root canal treatment and retained roots from defective surgery. She and her child require therapy to deal with the trauma of sirens, drones, and missile attacks.

If our worldwide community pools its compassion to help her by donating what you can afford, Anastasia and her child will have the necessary funds, to travel by train to Romania and pay for interim accommodation while she searches for a rental apartment and a job.

Anastasia has an MBA, in Administrative Management, and a bachelor’s degree in business economics.

Her child can be enrolled in school but will require before and after-school childcare, also requiring funds.

These are the hurdles Jim and I have faced in trying to help our friend live through this devastating war.

1. I tried to get help for Anastasia by talking to the English learning org.

2. I tried to talk to the UN, but could not because I am not living in a European UN country – (I do not understand this) I live in Canada on a pension.

We are heartbroken that none of our efforts have yielded any results.

It was at the following point that we realized she/we needed help from the worldwide community.

"The largest long-range drone attack of the war, 89 drones!!" KYIV, July 31 (Reuters)

This attack began as we were having our online lesson on July 31st this year – I cannot imagine the fear this has caused them.

If Anastasia cries, her child cries too – please help them escape this hell.

I promise to keep you updated with our donation tally every couple of weeks and this ‘dear duo’s’ progress to safety.