Alisa: one year in Ireland
Last April, a Ukrainian journalism student wrote for Tripe + Drisheen about her experience of arriving in Ireland to stay with a Cork family; a lot has changed for Alisa Salenko in the past year.
A year since I left Ukraine
It’s unbelievable how quickly time goes. It seems to me that I left Ukraine about a few months ago, but then I look back and realise that one year has passed. If someone told me a year ago that I would be here, in Ireland, for a year without parents and relatives, I definitely would laugh and consider it a good joke.
But it happened, and for now, I feel much safer to stay here and try to build a new life from scratch.
A move from Cork
A lot of things have changed since I moved to Ireland. For example, now I am living in Dublin and studying here as well. The time I was allowed to live with my previous host family in Cork finished, and I needed to move.
I am living in a new host family now. This is a very nice family consisting of parents and two children: boys of six and eight years old. I found them with the volunteer organisation HelpingIrishHosts which helps Ukrainian refugees find families who can host them for longer periods of time. They are very nice to me and try to help as much as they can to make my stay comfortable for all of us.
I appreciate their kindness a lot. Even still, I can’t believe that people can do such good things to a previously unknown girl who needed their help. It puts me in a stupor to think that on the Earth exists two different types of people at the same time: those who kill innocent civilians in Ukraine, and diametrically opposed ones who volunteer and try to help refugees as much as they can.
I think I am more than lucky to meet and live with the second type, so we get along really well. I try to express my gratitude and help them around the house and with all things they need.
Sleeping on chairs in sleeping bags at Citywest
I started to have some difficulties when I needed to leave Cork and try to find myself new accommodation. It put me under a bit of pressure because I needed to go to CityWest refugee centre in Dublin and live there for a of couple days.
I think this centre was established for Ukrainian refugees to help them find appropriate free accommodation. To be honest, the conditions there weren't very nice: that centre just looked like a huge room full of different refugees, not only from Ukraine. There were a lot of chairs and desks there and a few bedrooms in the corner of the room which had already been occupied when I arrived so I didn’t get a place to sleep comfortably.
I, and a lot of other people who didn’t get a bed, had to sleep on the chairs in sleeping bags which volunteers gave to us. It wasn’t the most comfortable way to sleep. I got ill there and I think that was because there were a lot of people all close together. Also it was a little cold as the doors weren’t closed fully and the wind entered the room from time to time.
Sharing a bed
The best thing that happened to me during my stay in Citywest was that I met a very nice woman called Natalia. She was from Odesa and moved to Ireland on her own, like me. We talked a lot, supported each other, went to dinner and breakfast together and in general spent a lot of time in each other's presence.
Eventually we decided to live together because we found out that people with families or those who don’t want to live alone will be resettled quicker than those who prefer to live separately. We made that decision and later were settled in Saint Monica’s Nursing Home, which is being used as free accommodation for Ukrainians now.
We shared a small room with only one bed and closet for half a year.
Frankly speaking, it was really hard to sleep in one bed with a previously unknown woman, even if she was so nice and kind to me. I felt the lack of personal space and it put me under a bit of stress. But to my mind, you can get used to everything and I thanked God and the Irish government that I was at least safe.
I made a lot of friends in that nursing home and we are still very close, even if I am not living there anymore. My best friends' names are Sonia and Diana. They lived in that nursing home with me as they moved to Dublin together from Kharkiv. We spent a lot of time together and they supported me a lot in that difficult time.
My family
Another support I receive every day is my family. In my article last year I wrote about us going to Polyana in the far west of Ukraine on the Hungarian border.
They moved back to Kyiv last summer when the mayor of the city, Vitali Klitschko, said it was safe to return. The situation in Kyiv is really better than it was last autumn and winter because the government fixed the electricity problems. A few months ago there were huge issues and there was a lack of electricity every day.
My parents said it was really hard to get used to and my sister told me she couldn't study and work effectively. Although now it’s safer there, there are still air raid sirens and the city is being bombed time to time. A few weeks ago a bomb hit a shop, hopefully not near my parents home. I wish they could leave the country for Ireland, but the law that men from 18 to 60 years old have to stay in country is still in place. My father and my sister’s boyfriend can’t leave the country and the women prefer to stay with them.
But my sister got a job a few months ago, and now works as an English tutor. I am very proud of them all and I plan to visit my family in summer even if it’s still dangerous because we haven’t seen each other for a year and I miss them a lot.
The future
I still continue my studies at Taras Shevchenko University, attending classes online, but I also started a culinary course in college here in Ireland and I am doing it till May. All Ukrainians who attend courses like me are paid a SUSI bursary payment every month, so I don’t need to work to support myself. However, I do a part-time placement in the Hilton hotel as a kitchen worker and I hope to get a full-time position in the summer.
The situation in Ukraine is still hard and unpredictable. A lot of innocent people are dying and suffering and it’s hard to say when things will get better or the conflict will completely resolve. Nobody knows what can make Putin stop. I am very proud of the Ukrainian army that saves my nation every day from Russian conquest and makes every Ukrainian’s life safer. I am more than sure that Ukraine will win and it’s only a question of the time. We are a very brave and wilful nation.
I am very happy to live here, in Ireland, and to feel safe every day. The attitude towards Ukrainian people hasn't changed a lot in the past year, I don’t think: we are still getting huge support from the Irish government with accommodation, jobs and financial issues.
I am surrounded with Irish people more now as I am studying in college and all of them try to support me as much as they can. I am very thankful to all of them because it makes me feel like I am at home here.
My plans
I am planning to continue my studies in Ireland and try to enter the university here next year. The Irish government allows Ukrainian students to enter the university and they established special procedures for it as well.
I have a few friends who study in Trinity College and Dublin City University and they say they enjoy it a lot. I think I should take all opportunities that are given to me and try to build my own future, even if it seems hard. I also hope and pray that the war in Ukraine will be over as soon as possible because I want all my family and nation in general to be happy and safe.
I miss my parents, relatives and friends a lot and the biggest hope I have is that one day we will gather all together, with no fear that air raid siren may start anytime, in independent and marvelous Kyiv.
Alisa, like all our freelancers, is paid a fair and agreed fee for her work. To pay for journalists to write for Tripe + Drisheen, because we do not make money from advertising, we need the support of paid subscribers.