Client Story: Julia Fighting on the Front Lines
Julia Atamanchuk was a talented girl with a great future ahead. She attended a university striving to become a music teacher one day. However, during her studies Julia fell in love with a guy. Eventually, they started dating, and she ended up getting pregnant. When the boyfriend found out about Julia's pregnancy, he left her. At the time she lived with her grandmother, who supported Julia and helped her during pregnancy.
When the time came and with great difficulty, Julia gave birth to a baby boy. He was born blue, with severe hematomas in his brain and had to be resuscitated by the doctors.
Julia ended up leaving the university to take care of her newborn son. Some time has passed and she got married, and then got pregnant again. However, her new husband's prioritized his friends, drinking, and parties, with no space or time for family. He was also physically abusive to Julia, even though she was pregnant.
Julia came to the Khmelnytskyi Life Center together with her mother Olesya during her second pregnancy. We provided her with emotional and material support and thanked God she gave birth to a girl in August 2021. Julia’s husband, however, didn’t even come to meet his newborn daughter at the hospital. Our team continued to serve Julia as best as we possibly could. She received grocery goods, clothes, diapers and other baby products along with emotional support.
After yet another outburst, Julia's husband took her phone, money and disappeared with his friends leaving her alone with barely any means to exist. Despite all these difficulties she was going through, Julia always made sure to prepare something for Mothers Small Group at the Life Center and brought treats for other group members.
When the war in Ukraine began, Julia called us and asked for help again. We immediately sent her packages with essentials for the children and food. We were able to help her and her entire family escape to Poland. However after getting there, Julia did not feel at peace in a foreign country and in November 2022, with a heart overflowing with love for Ukraine, she returned.
She joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, where she provides medical assistance and serves as a tank gunner. Her two children are currently abroad under the care of their grandmother while Julia is fighting on the eastern front of Ukraine. On International Women's Day, Julia sent us a letter from the front lines signing off as "Your Julia.”
Thanks to your generosity and that of our donors, Julia's story inspires all of us to work even harder and to never give up. So we continue to serve women in crisis, saving the lives of Ukrainian children.