"Terrible, heartbreaking situation": Starnberg-based organization helps refugees

Created: 04/13/2022 10:03 am

By: Laura Forster

Are finally safe in Feldafing: the Ukrainians Iryna Shemechko and her daughters Yaryna (11) and Olha (6).

The Starnberg organization "Care in Action" helped with the escape.

© laura forster

The Starnberg organization "Care in Action" has been helping orphans in the Ukraine for years.

Even now, in times of war, she supports the locals with donations and the refugees with a roof over their heads.

Starnberg – The first thing Iryna Shemechko remembers on the day the war broke out, February 28, was a message from her two daughters' school.

"The classes are cancelled, they said.

At first I still thought Corona was the reason for this.” However, when she opened her Facebook page, she immediately knew what was going on.

"I was in shock," says the mother, who currently lives with her children in Feldafing.

The "Care in Action" organization based in Starnberg helped her escape.

Shemechko is an employee herself.

The 37-year-old and her family constantly had to seek shelter in the basement in the coming days.

They could no longer live in their apartment on the ninth floor of an apartment building in Lviv, as it would have been too far in the event of an attack.

"The army bases in the area were being attacked all the time." The Ukrainians had built a protective wall in front of the house, which is on the outskirts of the city.

"On the fourth day of the war, I decided to leave the country with my children," Shemechko says in English.

The decision was not easy for her, because her husband Roman and her mother left her in Ukraine.

“My husband, who actually works as an IT guy, is now fighting in the militia and protecting the city.

I am in regular contact with both of them.”

Aid organization "Care in Action" supports Ukrainian women fleeing to Starnberg

The three Ukrainians arrived at Munich Central Station about a week after the outbreak of war by train via Poland and Berlin.

Starnberger Werner Lehnis from the organization "Care in Action" picked her and her two daughters up and brought them to safe accommodation.

“The trip was terrible.

On the train to Poland it was so cramped that we sat shoulder to shoulder with the others.” However, the images in their heads of their destroyed homeland are even worse.

"The few weeks of war feel like five long years," says Shemechko.

After a few days, the organization found a home in Feldafing for the three Ukrainians.

In the meantime, only 20 people live in the family's block of flats in Ukraine.

“Before the war there were around 200.” Some fled to the villages, others to neighboring countries.

Above all, Shemechko's youngest daughter, six-year-old Olha, took the experience with her.

"She's been very clingy since she fled," says the mother, stroking the girl's head.

Raised tens of thousands of euros in donations for Ukraine

For many years, the organization "Care in Action" has been helping orphans in Ukraine and even now the team does not look away.

"We collected 43,000 euros in donations within a very short time," says Lehnis.

The money will be spent in Lviv on food, medicine, shelter and transport.

Lehnis and his team also help bring refugees to the district and take care of them there.

"It's a terrible heartbreaking situation.

Especially when you know a lot of people,” says Lehnis, who himself lived in Ukraine for a while.

Donations:

The organization welcomes donations to Care in Action eV;

IBAN: DE82 7004 0041 0367 0700 02;

BIC: COBADEFFXXX with the keyword "Ukraine crisis".