These children were able to escape Ukraine, but they have been left with the mental scars of what they endured. “I remember there was one girl who refused to sit next to the window,” Daria shares. “Later on we found out that she had scars on her arms, due to broken class. She was just afraid. This is just a small example of this trauma that children go through.”

Daria also began working for CARE Poland as a translator and working on communications. She now works with organisations led by women, some of whom, like her, arrived as refugees but have now found the strength to help others.

Knowing the challenges that Ukrainian women are facing helps motivate Daria in her work. She says she is also inspired by Polish women who have opened their hearts to help Ukrainians, as well as Ukrainian women who have had to build their lives again.

“A woman who is fleeing the war, leaving everything behind and taking her child or children with her and having to deal with all the problems, all the difficulties – basically build a new life, finding a job, finding herself in a new society and also taking care of her children – this is a huge responsibility and an enormous burden,” she says.

After fleeing war in Ukraine, this woman helps others who are trying to rebuild their lives in Poland