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20.11.2025
A Home You Always Carry With You: Marichka’s Story
Marichka says that home feels like a hug. Like the warmth of a heater in winter. Like tea in the kitchen and conversations that make you feel at ease. She was born in Kamianske, started school in Feodosia, graduated in Lviv, and eventually came to Kyiv to study at university. A tangled geography, yet each of these cities has become a part of her and shaped the person she is today.
It makes me incredibly angry and feels deeply unfair that they want to take my home away from me, and that the people who could have been my home… or become very important to me, are being taken away as well,
For Marichka, Crimea is fig trees in the yard and cherries. You climb a big tree, and you can already see the sea. It is also mountains, forests, and a family summer cottage. A doll named Nastia, whose eyebrows her grandmother used to draw. Marichka loved her so much that she still remembers the familiar rubbery scent. The toy remained there. Marichka had planned to take it with her, but didn’t have time. The war deprived her of the chance to return, but not of her memories.
When You Lose a Place, You Build It Again
After the Russian occupation of Crimea and the full-scale invasion, Marichka realized that she carries her home with her. It lives within the people around her. In the feelings they create together. At first, that home was Lviv, where her parents live. Later, the sense of home moved with her to Kyiv, though it changed slightly along the way.
In the second year of the full-scale war, Marichka set herself a clear goal: to rebuild the stability that the war had taken away. She began looking for support in people, in routine, and in creativity. That was when she joined a creative workshop organized by the Voices of Children Foundation, where for four months 18 teenagers learned to write poetry under the mentorship of Ukrainian writer and translator Kateryna Mikhalitsyna.
In the second year of the full-scale war, Marichka set herself a clear goal: to rebuild the stability that the war had taken away. She began looking for support in people, in routine, and in creativity. That was when she joined a creative workshop organized by the Voices of Children Foundation, where for four months 18 teenagers learned to write poetry under the mentorship of Ukrainian writer and translator Kateryna Mikhalitsyna.
Marichka describes herself as artistic, dreamy, and fragile. She used to write mostly about affection and falling in love, but her recent poems grow out of lived experience, out of things she had kept inside for a long time. Poems about Crimea. About Feodosia. About that part of herself she long struggled to accept and is now getting to know. Today’s poems carry a lot of pain, but they allow her to express feelings and transform them into something alive.
I have to gather myself back together—before.
I have to gather myself piece by piece—after.
Books should not be published posthumously.
Books must see their poets.
(direct translation from Ukrainian)
I have to gather myself piece by piece—after.
Books should not be published posthumously.
Books must see their poets.
(direct translation from Ukrainian)
A Community That Becomes Home
During the residency, Marichka felt the same warmth she associates with home. It is safe there: you can express any thought, and you will be heard, accepted, not judged. All the participants came from different cities, and this creates a special sense of unity: they understand one another, united by poetry and shared difficult experiences. Kateryna, their mentor, brings lightness into every interaction, and Marichka feels very comfortable with her. The creative community becomes the place she wants to return to again and again.
Sometimes I can feel lost. But sometimes I still feel that I’m exactly where I belong. And even if I’m not standing very firmly in some areas, I am still standing where I’m meant to be,
Stories like Marichka’s show how words help heal, how art becomes a source of support for those living through war and loss, how poetry turns into a space where pain can be spoken, and where love for life can exist alongside it. The Voices of Children Foundation creates such spaces so that teenagers who have lost their familiar world can find a new one.
If you or your child needs support, please reach out to our centers across Ukraine or our psychological support helpline: 0 800 210 106. You can support the Foundation’s work by making a donation or sharing our updates.
If you or your child needs support, please reach out to our centers across Ukraine or our psychological support helpline: 0 800 210 106. You can support the Foundation’s work by making a donation or sharing our updates.
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