I met Natalia today. Please have a read. I will share more and ask for your help tomorrow for her family. Today I gave her €100 and promised to think about how to find them housing for 3 months while son 18yo Kostya tries for sight-restoring eye surgery. economist.com/1843/2022/07/2…
На русском прочитайте тут. facebook.com/10000180280086…
Anna, in a Wien dorm, found my Telegram chat. She met me and a journalist, and passed my number to Natalia. Natalia texted me: her family of six had just arrived in Austria, lost everything in Mariupol, sought medical treatment in Georgia after her sons were both badly wounded.🧵
This is behind a paywall. I share descriptions of how Natalia's sons were both seriously injured (nephew was killed) when their ground floor flat in Mariupol was hit. Kostia, 18, had 3 surgeries in Georgia, to rebuild thumb & index finger, and on his eyes. economist.com/1843/2022/07/2…
The doctors in Georgia were wonderful, she says. They did as much as they could. But they told Kostia to go to Austria to seek a surgery to try to restore his eyesight in his injured eye. At the moment, Kostia only has vision in one. He also needs nose surgery in 3 months.
Natalia is in a Vienna temporary shelter with her husband, Roma, her mother (85) who has dementia, and Kostia and his girlfriend Nastia and her youngest, also Nastia (12). Eldest son Vova (24) is still in Georgia. They didn't have enough money for his ticket. Volunteers help.
The family plans to stay in Vienna for three months. Today they will see an eye doctor. They are searching for who can perform the surgery. Once Kostia's medical procedures are over, they plan to emigrate to Canada, with Vova. You have to be fit to go to🇨🇦she says. Ready to work!
I met Natalia yesterday not knowing all these details. I simply brought €100 cash to help when I heard about 6 people who just arrived from Mariupol. She wrote me the sweetest message yesterday evening.
"We bought watermelon, sausages, chocolate, bananas, juice, bread, grapes, glasses for €3, sneakers for €12, shorts & T-shirt for my daughter. So you know how we spent the money :) For the first time in 6 months we felt like in our old life. We could buy w/o counting pennies."
Natalia and her family have no home to return to. They are lucky to have made it out of Mariupol alive. I am doubtful they will receive free social housing here in Vienna near hospitals if they say they plan to go onto Canada + none left. Therefore I offered to ask for help here.
We are looking at short-term accommodation for a family of 6, possibly 7 if Vova joins them from Georgia (they spent all their savings of $3000 on the flights for the 6 of them and getting out of Mariupol), for 3-4 months in Vienna, near the hospitals here. Please DM for contact.
I know there is literally no housing left, everything is difficult, we don't even know yet if the surgeons in Vienna will be able to restore Kostia's eyesight, but I promised Natalia we would try.
She is a beacon of positive energy despite the horrors they lived through (END).
p.s. if any eye surgeons read this, happy to put you in contact directly with the family. As I understand the situation today, they have a consultation in a doctor's office this morning, to discuss what if any operation might be possible. Simply a referral from the NGO on staff.
P.p.s @Wendell23 you might be interested in this update! When I saw your byline that Natalia sent me it reminded me of your book on Georgia which I read years ago will sitting in a Moscow office wishing my life was more exciting. I still have it!
Update! Kostia has been given an eye surgery date of 30 September in Wien in the Hanusch hospital. So housing is definitely needed in Wien or nearby suburbs. 6-7 people if Vova is able to join too. Can we pull off a miracle? For 3 months?
@threadreaderapp unroll pls
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