About Nadia

Here is Nadia on the right with Olia Yevtushenko. Joy stays with Olia and her family when she goes to stay in Ukraine. Olia is a medical Dr, and she introduced me to Nadia about 5 years ago. She speaks perfect English, and translates for me when I visit various people that the charity supports. Nadia is an attractive lady who lives in Ukraine in Kiev, and is approximately 35 – 40 years old. She married in the 1980’s, but now lives with her parents, and she has a son Andre who is about 18 years old. Andrey studies at college. The cat belongs to Nadia!

In the late 80’s Nadia had a terrible motorcycle accident, which left her paralysed on her left side. She has taken up embroidery, and produces magnificent pieces of work, with great difficulty, as she cannot work with two hands, as would any normal person. She uses her left paralysed arm to hold the cloth in position whilst she sews.

She lives in a fifth floor apartment, which has no lift, so Nadia finds it extremely difficult to leave her home. Her parents do sometimes manage to take her to visit the countryside, but without a lift to convey her to the ground floor this is, of course very difficult She manages to get around by using a chair which has been converted to a wheelchair – somebody has added castors to the legs.

Nadia is very happy that the embroideries that she makes supports the charity – (Joy sells what she can when she returns to the UK) she feels that she is giving something back, in return for the support that we have given her.

I see her on average twice a year, and we spend about two hours chatting over a glass of wine, or a cup of tea.