Marina Bidnar, the Lead with Dreams Together NGO, always has a smile. Not on
this night.
“When we heard a drone descending (18th July), I ran outside of our home.
Seconds later, I grabbed the children and rushed to our basement. The explosions
came one after another. The children cried. I couldn’t stop shaking. It felt like the
start of the full-scale war all over again.
Later we learned the military enlistment office had been targeted, just 200 meters
from our Dreams Together centre. Panic then hit me. That centre is our heart. It’s
where we serve displaced people, it is our second home.
They Tried to Break Us
A volunteer who lives nearby checked the building that night: all 24 windows were shattered and protective tiling had been blasted off the outside walls. We knew the local authorities couldn’t help as they were
focused on searching and repairing homes. But we couldn’t let our center and its aid contents perish from the
wind and rain. So we launched an urgent local fundraiser, and the response overwhelmed us. People from across Ukraine sent what they could. That next day, together with nearby displaced families, we boarded up the windows. The center had the chance to get warm again. This attack didn’t destroy us. It just made us stronger. And we showed that when using waterproof paint to cover exposed mortar with a mural.
This Attack didn’t Destroy us - It just made us Stronger
Now, we’re back to welcoming new displaced families daily. They
need everything. Food, clothes, bedding, and hygiene supplies.
One Surprise:
We discovered an old
basement beneath the
center. It’s unusable now, but
we can dream of turning it
into a shelter. A safe place
for those who have nowhere
else to go.
We will need help to do it.
How do we keep going?
Faith in our mission, and
what we see in the eyes of
those we serve. Their “thank yous’ ,their tears
and smiles, they all give us strength.
My husband and sons are
always by my side. As a
family we are in this together.
There’s no one else helping the displaced in our area. That’s why we can’t
stop. And we won’t.”
Within days Marina and her team were operating again. A wonderful mural of
the Doves of Peace over the Ukrainian Flag now adorns a wall stripped of its
tiles.
Dream Together receives New Forest Aid on a regular basis. Sadly it is never
enough to cover the newly displaced families they are required to help.
If you can get what they most urgently ask for to us, we will get it to them.