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14.11.2025
Not Afraid to Live: The Story of 12-Year-Old Yevа from Frontline Sumy
Talking to Yeva is a real pleasure. She is smart, open, and genuinely curious. She never gets lost in her answers, has her own opinions, and always knows what she wants to say. She is only 12, yet there is a sense of maturity in her words. One that arrived far earlier than it should have. Yeva herself feels how much she has grown. And it’s easy to understand why: too many events have happened in just four years of her childhood.
Psychologists from the Voices of Children Foundation helped Yeva from Sumy learn to talk about her fears and find the strength to enjoy life, even when war surrounds her.
Psychologists from the Voices of Children Foundation helped Yeva from Sumy learn to talk about her fears and find the strength to enjoy life, even when war surrounds her.
Strive. Act. Live.
Yeva is pure energy. Her mom sometimes marvels at her daughter’s determination and drive to achieve results. This girl manages everything and never gives up. She volunteers, dances, writes fairy tales, and has countless plans and dreams. She is an excellent student. Though, since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, she has been studying only online.
I really miss my school: it was like a second home to me. I even love how my school looks. It’s beautiful and colorful. I miss having fun during breaks; I loved working in groups during lessons. Because communication is my life. Online is completely different. I miss that school vibe,
Yeva hasn’t been to school for three years now: she doesn’t know the new teachers and hasn’t seen her classmates in a long time. What she has now are memories of school and after-school life, excursions, helping her mom and her teacher, and walks in the forest that hadn’t yet been mined.
When I look at myself as a little girl, I think how carefree life was! Everything was so bright—nature, trips with my parents, picnics with tents. Everything was alive, everything was easy and joyful. Moments like that hardly ever happen now. It feels to me that every moment before Russia’s full-scale invasion was childhood. And now I feel like an adult. I think more about life, about needs. I really feel that the world has changed,
Yeva herself has changed along with the world. Still, she doesn’t allow herself time to be sad. Instead, she chooses to joke and laugh. And, most importantly, to act. She is growing up in a family that believes that for the war to end, people must do something themselves, rather than sit with their hands folded.
Together with her parents and volunteers, Yeva makes trench candles and delivers aid to people affected by shelling. Together with her friends, she weaves beaded bracelets and sells them for donations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. She gets shy, but proudly adds: “Our biggest donation was almost $12! We send all the money to help our army and animals.”
Together with her parents and volunteers, Yeva makes trench candles and delivers aid to people affected by shelling. Together with her friends, she weaves beaded bracelets and sells them for donations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. She gets shy, but proudly adds: “Our biggest donation was almost $12! We send all the money to help our army and animals.”
Dance as a Way to Escape Reality
Yeva’s passion since early childhood has been dance. She has been performing since the age of four, in street dance styles. She has even gone on tour, both solo and with her group, to Poltava and Kharkiv. In her hometown of Sumy, she most often performed on the stage of Sumy State University. The very one that Russian forces struck with a missile and drones in the summer of 2025. There hasn’t been a single day of Russia’s full-scale invasion when Yeva hasn’t danced—professionally, at a dance school, and for herself, at home. She improvises and invents her own moves.
When I move, I feel my emotions. I just want to turn on the music and dance. I kind of dissolve into the dance, and then I don’t think about everything happening around me. It really helps me distract myself!
But distracting herself is becoming harder and harder: shelling in Sumy, where the family lives, is growing more intense. Yeva doesn’t go far from home. Her mom worries about her safety. They have an unspoken agreement: in case of danger, the girl must quickly take shelter inside the building. Yeva has become so used to this that once, when a drone was flying almost directly above a playground, she gathered all the children and led them to shelter. A reality that should never become normal for childhood.
Only on so-called “quiet” days, which are now extremely rare, does her mom let Yeva go a bit farther from home. Most of all, the teenager is drawn to the neighborhood where she once lived with her family, where all her childhood friends remain. Last year, a missile hit the courtyard of the building where Yeva lived. The blast shattered the windows and doors of their apartment and destroyed the balcony. Living there became impossible, so the family had to move.
Only on so-called “quiet” days, which are now extremely rare, does her mom let Yeva go a bit farther from home. Most of all, the teenager is drawn to the neighborhood where she once lived with her family, where all her childhood friends remain. Last year, a missile hit the courtyard of the building where Yeva lived. The blast shattered the windows and doors of their apartment and destroyed the balcony. Living there became impossible, so the family had to move.
When the strike happened, I was really scared. It was so loud, it felt like the building was shaking. The whole apartment was covered in debris. Now I understand that the most important thing is that we’re all alive, but it was very frightening,
Dreaming, Even When It’s Scary
After that, the girl became emotionally unstable. She struggled to make contact and was afraid of the sounds of explosions and air raid sirens. Her mom worried that all this stress was coinciding with adolescence, so she turned to the Voices of Children Foundation. Yeva liked the Sumy center. She trusted the psychologist during individual sessions and began attending group activities.
I went to a psychologist because I wanted to learn how to control myself, my emotions. When you can pull yourself together, it really helps. I would advise my peers not to be afraid to show that they’re scared. You need to talk, to speak things out with parents and psychologists. Even if it seems like something insignificant. It’s important for me to communicate with people, it helps me. I try to keep myself together even during explosions, because if we all just sit down and cry, nothing good will come of it!
Yeva hasn’t lost the ability to dream. For example, about traveling. She has already been to Italy and Poland, where the family evacuated at the start of the full-scale invasion. But Yeva wants to discover new countries not out of necessity, but calmly and with curiosity. She has already had a small journey this year: in the fall, she went to a Voices Camp session in the Chernivtsi region. There, for two weeks, Yeva and her peers forgot about shelling and sirens and received professional psychological support.
She dreams of a picnic in the forest overnight. Of a picnic with tents, together with her parents. Of a trip to her grandmother’s village, which is currently extremely dangerous, and of swimming there in the river in summer. She wants to live again in her home in the neighborhood and walk with her friends to their favorite clearing, giving little concerts for passersby and inventing new dances. And to live, simply live: carefree, bright, and light. Like before.
She dreams of a picnic in the forest overnight. Of a picnic with tents, together with her parents. Of a trip to her grandmother’s village, which is currently extremely dangerous, and of swimming there in the river in summer. She wants to live again in her home in the neighborhood and walk with her friends to their favorite clearing, giving little concerts for passersby and inventing new dances. And to live, simply live: carefree, bright, and light. Like before.
Yeva received support at the Sumy center of the Voices of Children Foundation, whose opening was made possible thanks to a public fundraising campaign and the support of people from all over the world.
If you feel that you or your child needs support, contact our centers across Ukraine or our psychological support helpline: 0800 210 106. You can also support our Foundation’s work by sharing our updates or making a donation here.
If you feel that you or your child needs support, contact our centers across Ukraine or our psychological support helpline: 0800 210 106. You can also support our Foundation’s work by sharing our updates or making a donation here.
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