US first lady Jill Biden – in a post on Twitter – honoured the Ukrainian mothers who have been battling odds to provide for their children and keep them safe in face of the ongoing war in the country. “Mothers will do anything for their children — and Ukrainian mothers, like Svitlana, continue to be so strong and resilient,” Biden said in an emotional post. “I am grateful to know that the Romanian people have taken these families into their homes and into their hearts,” she added, attaching a photo of a girl clung to her mother as Jill Biden bends down and smiles at them. Her post coincided with Mothers’ day, observed every year on the second Sunday of May.
Biden on Saturday met and heard stories from the Ukrainian women and children who fled Russia’s war and found a safe haven in Romania. A mother narrated her ordeal to the US first lady of a harrowing escape after being holed up in a cramped, cold basement with her traumatized 8-year-old daughter, reported news agency AP.
Reaching Romania “was a game change for us,” Svitlana Gollyak of Kharkiv, Ukraine, told Biden in her native language during the first lady’s tour of a Bucharest public school hosting refugee children, according to reports.
Gollyak said her daughter “feels much better here. … No more tears and she adapted very nicely.”
In a message, Biden told the families “we stand with you.” She also praised the Romanian government and relief organizations for the range of humanitarian aid they are providing to refugees.
Visiting the school, Biden – herself a teacher – said: “Really, in a lot of ways, the teachers are the glue that helps these kids deal with their trauma and deal with the emotion and help give them a sense of normalcy.”
She added that she saw signs of hope for families who “felt that there was some structure to their lives and they were getting supplies. They all realized how much money the United States has been giving to Ukraine and to the refugee situation and to Romania to support the refugees.”
Notably, a majority of the Ukrainians who have fled to Romania are mainly women and children. The United Nations, other agencies, and the Romanian government are assisting refugees with food, shelter, education, health and mental health care, and counseling, among other services.
The first lady is on a four-day trip to Romania and Slovakia, which shares a border with Ukraine, that is designed to showcase US support for the refugees.
Russia declared “special military operations” in Ukraine on February 24, forcing millions out of their homes.
(With agency inputs)