My life was excellent until February. That’s when everything changed for us. The war broke out in Ukraine, and my son and I had to flee to the UK. I was forced to stop working because all my clients from Ukraine are somewhere else in the world now. I want to get back into work as soon as possible so I can start rebuilding my life here. At the moment, we're guests in a host family's house. I feel really, really grateful to the host family for taking us in. But at the same time it’s hard not having your own place to stay, and you feel wary of intruding.
My son’s English isn’t that great. He’s only five so he’s still learning, and he’s been struggling to keep up at school because of the language barrier. The school moved him to a class for autistic children and children with behavioural issues because of his low English levels, and that’s been so hard for him. It also takes us an hour and a half to walk to school because we can’t afford transport. We leave home at 7.30am and arrive at 9am. My son is 5 years old, so he gets tired on the walk and that’s why it takes us so long. We have to start and stop so many times along the way, and he keeps saying "Mummy, I'm tired".
In Ukraine I was a neuropsychologist and I had my own psychology centre. I worked with kids with autism. I’ve got two Masters degrees. I would like to continue my work here, but none of my qualifications are recognised, so I have to start from scratch. It's very hard.
My previous life was amazing. I was very happy and I wish I could go back to how my life was. While I'm in the UK I’d love to work in childcare and continue my career in some way. Thank you for your support.