Among the thousands of Ukrainian refugees who have found shelter in Burgenland is a family from Kyiv. Mother Nataliya brought her two children to Trausdorf after the father – who stayed in the Ukraine – has acquaintances here. In elementary school, the girls study German diligently.
“I heard the noise of battle on the morning of February 24th and couldn’t believe it. But I knew immediately that we had to leave, so I packed a few things and got in the car,” says mother Nataliya. Staying with family First, the family fled to western Ukraine: “But then my husband said that I would take the children should go to Trausdorf. He knew someone here.” The reception in the Burgenland-Croatian community was warm for Nataliya and her daughters Zlata (6) and Kamila (10): “We stayed privately with a family whose grandchildren are about the same age as my girls .”Then they registered at school, where the children were already looking forward to their new classmates. “Our girls and boys even drew a welcome poster in Ukrainian and learned Ukrainian sentences to greet Zlata and Kamila,” says director Elisabeth Morri.Croatian helps with integrationThe bilingualism of the teachers and students in Trausdorf makes communication a lot easier, Morri knows: ” Burgenland-Croatian and Ukrainian are not that different. You understand a lot of terms and then you make sense of the rest.” Although Zlata and Kamila are hard-working students. At the “Krone” local inspection, the girls proudly listed terms in German. And yet the great longing for home remains: “We hope that there will be peace soon and that we can go back to dad.”
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