Natasha (36) and her sister Tanya (42) arrived in Geffen on Wednesday evening after a day-long journey from Ukraine. Together with their three children, ages 5, 13 and 19, they fled the bombing and shelling in their native village near Kiev. In Geffen they could go to the family of Richard and Hanneke Dortmans. “These are people who have lost everything because a madman thought it necessary to throw bombs,” says Richard Dortmans. “Of course you want to help them.”
Moved, Natasha looks around the bedroom in Geffen where she spent her first night in the Netherlands. She points to all the things around her, pulls open drawers containing neatly folded clothes for her two sons. “I am so grateful for everything these people do for us.”
Drawings of the host family hang on the wall to welcome the guests from Ukraine. Prominently depicted: the flags of Ukraine and the Netherlands, side by side.
Richard and Hanneke Dortmans quickly agreed when they were asked to take in refugees. The garage, which had just been converted into a bar, became a cozy living room and on the top floor there was room for enough beds for the five guests.
“The entire interior, up to and including a mobile shower cubicle, it was all donated,” says Richard. “The whole village is ready with stuff. So much so that we sometimes hold back.”
With barely more than their passports, the sisters and their children left Ukraine. Their houses had been shelled. Looting soldiers forced their way in through the broken windows. The gas station where Natasha worked was destroyed by the shelling and with that her work ended. Through her tears she talks about what she left behind. “But I mainly fled to give the children a safe home,” she says firmly.
She wants to learn Dutch and find work and hopes that her children can go to school. But most of all, she wants peace. That is her greatest wish.