One reply to an email helped turn uncertainty into a decision. Svitlana’s story from Ukraine shows how concrete support and a human approach can open the way to safety, peace, and a new beginning.

When Svitlana wakes up in the morning now, she feels calm.
No sirens. No sudden awakenings in the middle of the night. Just the ordinary sounds of a city - the kind most people barely notice. For her, they mean something essential: she is safe.

© International Organization for Migration 2026 / Filip Nagy

Svitlana comes from Irpin, a town near Kyiv. Before the war, she lived a quiet, well-ordered life with her husband, Anatolij. She worked as a web developer, he as a production line technician in a factory. In her free time, she read books, knitted, and took care of her family. Their son, Andrii, devoted himself to ballroom dancing, and the whole family supported his passion. It was an ordinary family life, filled with work, routines and holidays - one she now knows was precious.

Svitlana has lived with health challenges for most of her life. Since childhood, she has had lung problems, and in 2009 she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Still, she worked, made plans, and lived actively. The war changed everything.

“Now I can hardly imagine how we survived it,” she says, thinking back to the first months after the conflict began.

At first, she and her husband moved to the Zakarpattia region, then returned to Irpin. The constant stress, ongoing attacks, and nights repeatedly interrupted by sirens took their toll. Sleep became a luxury; peace felt distant. Svitlana realized she could no longer cope - mentally or physically. Her health deteriorated to the point that a partial disability became permanent.

© International Organization for Migration 2026 / Filip Nagy

The thought of leaving Ukraine returned more and more often. By that time, their son Andrii had already moved to Slovakia to study at the University of Economics in Bratislava. Being closer to him gradually became the only imaginable way forward.

The decision did not come overnight. It was preceded by long searches for information, unanswered questions, and fear of the unknown. Svitlana began looking into their options and who might be able to advise them. During one of these searches, she came across the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Slovakia. She wrote an email.

The reply she received was clear, practical and human. It offered information, guidance and concrete support, including help with accommodation. IOM works with several accommodation facilities and can, for a limited period, cover accommodation costs and help secure a place for people in need. But for Svitlana, the reply meant much more than that. With this support in place, their departure could move from an uncertain plan to a real step forward.

“That email gave me courage,” she says. “The certainty that when we set out, someone would be there on the other side. That we wouldn’t be alone.”

© International Organization for Migration 2026 / Filip Nagy

In the summer of 2025, they made their decision. They packed their car and left at night. After sixteen hours on the road, they arrived at an accommodation facility in Martin. The exhaustion was overwhelming, but the relief was stronger. For the first time in a long while, Svitlana slept through the night - uninterrupted, without fear.

They spent around six months in Martin. It was there that a turning point began for her. Alongside basic accommodation, she received support that helped her navigate an entirely new environment: assistance with social benefits, healthcare, interpretation at offices and medical appointments. Practical, everyday help that would have been extremely difficult to manage alone, without IOM’s support.

“Without this assistance, I wouldn’t have been able to move forward in Martin,” she says openly.

After several months, Svitlana and her husband moved to Bratislava to be closer to their son. Andrii helped them find a rental apartment and settle into a city he already knew well. Anatolij quickly found work in a food production factory as a technician - the same profession he had practiced back in Ukraine.

For Svitlana, the move to the capital also meant better access to healthcare. After a long time, she was finally able to see a specialist and begin addressing her health systematically again. It helped that in Bratislava she found doctors she could communicate with easily - and she also experienced openness and willingness from Slovak medical staff.

Today, Svitlana is enrolled in a retraining course and preparing to return to work in web development. Working from home makes sense for her, especially given her health condition. She wants to work again, earn an income, and feel productive.

© International Organization for Migration 2026 / Filip Nagy

“At last, I sleep peacefully and wake up feeling content,” she says.

In her free time, she has returned to the small things she always loved - books, knitting, caring for her plants. She watches her son progress in his studies and hopes that one day he might return to dancing, which once meant so much to him. For herself, she has one simple wish: that a cure for her diagnosis may one day exist.

Her story is not one of grand gestures or dramatic turns. It is the story of a single reply that came at the right moment. Of people who helped when it mattered. And of a return to an ordinary life - one that is slowly becoming possible again.

“Slovakia is a good country,” she says at the end. “It feels close to us. And thanks to the people who help here, we never felt lost from the very beginning.”

Supported by the people of Japan.