Warm welcome in the Würmtal
Created: 03/11/2022, 16:36
By: Martin Schullerus
Finally safe: The mothers Olha and Iryna with their children Makar (6), Oleksij (8) and Valeria (13, sitting from left) are warmly cared for by their hosts (standing from left) Renata and Zdzislaw Zbrog, Gisela Hüttinger and Margarete Janssen, who takes care of the bureaucracy.
© Dagmar Rutt
The horror of what is happening to their lives and their country is written all over their faces.
But they also know: Now they are safe.
In Gräfelfing, two mothers who fled the Ukraine with their children were warmly welcomed by private individuals.
They are among the first refugees from Ukraine in the Würm Valley.
Gräfelfing
– The children are quiet, too quiet.
No squabbles, no grins, no nonsense.
The brothers Makar (6) and Oleksij (8) sit on the garden bench next to their mother and squint in the sun.
Next to them is 13-year-old Valeria with her mother Iryna.
When they got out of the car on Tuesday evening in Gräfelfinger Akilindastraße, they had an odyssey behind them, with many anxious hours.
Olha comes from the city of Lutsk in northwestern Ukraine.
For several nights they listened to the noise of battle, the bombs falling mainly on the nearby airport.
Your apartment hasn't been hit - yet.
As long as there was an opportunity, the three packed what was necessary and fled west, first as far as Poland.
train under fire
Iryna and Valeria had it much further.
Their train traveled from the southern city of Zaporizhia across Ukraine for five days, initially under fire, until they finally arrived in Warsaw and were provisionally housed by the same helper organization as Olha and her two boys.
Without them knowing it, the next course in their life was already looming in distant Gräfelfing – this time in the right direction.
On the initiative of Merkur publisher Dr.
Dirk Ippen, Renata Zbrog and her husband Zdzislaw, who live next door to the Ippens, got in their car and drove in the direction of Warsaw to bring refugees from the Ukraine to Germany.
The helper organization put them in contact with the two mothers and their children, who had Germany as their destination anyway.
"It goes without saying that we help people in need," says Dirk Ippen.
Watching football with the neighborhood kids
Iryna and her daughter now live on the first floor of the neighboring house with Gisela Hüttinger, Olha and the boys on the ground floor with the Zbrog family.
Even if it will take time to process the horror of the last few days - the environment is doing everything to make it easier for the families.
The neighbor children Nele and Niklas pick up the boys to watch football, there is play equipment on the property, several dogs - and no fences between the gardens.
Gisela Hüttinger has already taken her protégés on an excursion to Lake Starnberg in glorious sunshine.
"They couldn't believe how close they now live to the Alps," she says.
And there was the first Bavarian pretzel.
Margarete Janssen from Planegg has taken over the bureaucratic side of the private aid project and is setting the pace.
She has registered the families with the government of Upper Bavaria and is now waiting for the registration numbers for the official registration.
This is a prerequisite for full refugee status.
"The medical care has already been clarified," says Janssen.
She registered the two women at the adult education center for a German course – but there is a waiting list.
Even the school for the children does not work immediately, it should take at least three months before they get a place.
Maybe it won't be until the new school year in September.
The mothers are allowed to work in Germany – and of course they want to.
Olha studied finance in Ukraine and worked at a bank,
but also has experience in nursing.
Iryna was employed at home in the food retail trade, but would also accept other jobs (offers: telephone 89 35 65 913 or email to wuermtal@merkur.de).
At purchase price
The helpers on Akilindastrasse are by far not the only people in the Würmtal who open their hearts, houses – and purses – to ease the lot of the war refugees.
Preparations for accommodation are underway everywhere, aid transports are being packed and sums of money are being donated.
Renata Zbrog found out how varied help can be, even on a small scale, when she went to a bookstore in Graefelfing to get easy-to-understand books for the children.
"When I explained what it was about, I got the books straight away at the purchase price," she says, touched.
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