In February, Yaroslava Dib had a beautiful house, a great career and a loving family in Ukraine. Then war broke out, and she was forced to flee the home she loved for an uncertain and arduous path to sanctuary.
“In the early morning, around 4:35 a.m., I woke to a loud sound, like fireworks,” writes Dib. “I realized then that the sounds I’d heard were bombs. The war had started.”
On March 1, Dib and her family, including her 11-year-old son, Nazar, fled their home in Kyiv. They travelled through four countries in five days, then spread out across three continents.
Dib and Nazar eventually landed in Canada, where they're trying to make a new home for themselves. But they long to return to their native country, and to see the rest of their family again. “Every day Nazar asks me when we can go back home,” writes Dib.