SOS Ukraine - assistance for the disabled

Nazar (22) is from Ternopil near Lviv. When a year ago he was obligatorily enlisted in the army, we didn’t think that he would have learned how to shoot people. This energetic, friendly, sensitive and smart man is an electrician and worked in a car workshop before the war. He wanted to go to the University, travel, pick up girls and earn enough money to buy himself a motorcycle. He wanted to live like every other young person. It happened otherwise…

15th May 2022

Warning! The following fragment is only for people of strong nerves! Nazar will remember the 15th May 2022 for the rest of his life. After only 3 months of mandatory military service, this healthy, strong 21-year-old was sent to the front. Straight to the trenches, 30 km from the Russian border. Without any specialized training – he has only been taught how to handle his rifle – he was sent to the toughest part of the frontline. That day seemed to be a very quiet day, nothing indicated that the Russians would open fire… Around noon Nazar left the trenches with a friend and headed towards their base. Suddenly Russians emerged from the nearby forest…

- I remember everything exactly. We left our trenches and then, BAM!, they sent a burst of rounds straight at us. I was hit in my back, the round smashed my ribs, cut the lungs, bounced off the spine, damaging it and went into the head. There, it turned 180^o and stuck somewhere inside. Russians use a special type of ammo which is filled with a dangerous substance. When it enters the human body, it turns and whirls inside with a great force dealing enormous damage…-Nazar says.

After that, he remembers less and less. He only heard  horrific screams of his friend who also got shot, felt warmth going slowly through his whole body, blood everywhere and serene peace… He woke up on a plane being transported to hospital in Kyiv. He didn’t feel the pain. The only worrying thing was that he also didn’t feel his legs…

New life from scratch.

The diagnosis was devastating for Nazar: the round injured his spine and probably Nazar won’t be able to walk again. How come? So many plans, so many dreams, so many things to do…

- At first I didn’t acquiesce to that. It’s not my war, I didn’t want to participate in it. However, I am so stubborn that I decided to start my new life from scratch – Nazar says.

In December, last year, Nazar was released from military service and he started to fight for himself. He did not give up even for a second! He decided that he would leave the hospital on his own…wheels. And he kept his promise. Weeks of backbreaking work and effort, rehabilitation all day long, and the physical and spiritual support of other wounded soldiers brought amazing results. Nazar left the hospital on his own wheels. He is nondependent and he learnt to be even more self-sufficient while staying in training apartments led by Doctor Piotr Janaszek’s PAY IT FORWARD Foundation in Konin.

- I am so happy that I have found PAY IT FORWARD Foundation. I would like to thank my dear mother, who has been working in Poland for several years now and who knows a certain firefighter. And this person, together with other firefighters helped me get out of Ukraine and come to Poland. And because this fireman knows a young boy in a wheelchair who practiced with Mustang Konin wheelchair basketball team, I have met the team’s captain – Marek Bystrzycki. He was the one who helped me get into the training apartments. I thought I knew a lot but that’s nonsense. Here, I learn everyday life, how to overcome different barriers and I even learn how to cook! I can already make delicious stuffed pancakes! Today I know that if I never stand on my own two feet again, I will continue to live! Thank you PAY IT FORWARD. You’re doing a great job! – assures Nazar.

When asked about his plans and dreams, he says that since the accident on the front, he’s not making any plans. He lives day by day, under the motto: tell God your plans and he’ll have a good laugh… Nazar does have dreams: he would like to be completely independent, to live fully like young people his age, namely, to travel, party, find an interesting job and maybe even start a family… Oh, and he dreams of an active wheelchair as light as the one he borrowed from the Mustangs, because Nazar came to Poland on his own set of wheels, but it is a heavy, crude orthopedic wheelchair.