“I grew up in a dysfunctional family. My single mother  abused drugs and I don't even know who my father was,  I only heard from stories from different people. Therefore, our grandmother, who had a tendency to drink alcohol, took care of us. She loved my sister and me very much.

I received my primary education at a secondary school in Lviv. After my mother was killed for debts to drug dealers, my sister and I were separated. My sister was sent to an orphanage because she was not old enough to go to school, and I was sent to the Chervonograd boarding school. Therefore, I became an orphan at an early age when I was 9 years old.

Let's skip my time in boarding school, because you could write a whole book about it. In short, it is a kind of "survival school" where there are its own rules and laws that differ from the generally accepted ones.

In 2010, I entered the National University of the State Tax Service of Ukraine, which is located in Irpen. I studied at the specialty "enterprise economics". And here began the first tests faced by graduates of boarding schools.  How to cook food, there were always not enough funds for personal needs, lack of communication with new people, etc. And at some point, I remembered that Dmytro Samarsky came to us at the graduation classes, who talked about the opportunities offered by the "Friends of Children" charitable foundation for graduates of orphanages.

After participating in the "Scholarship" program, I began to receive a scholarship from UCARE sponsors. It gave a good start for my future plans. I began to actively participate in the projects offered by the foundation. Namely, I went to summer camps as an educator, where I helped with the organization and conduct of camps; visited students of graduating classes in boarding schools, where I conducted thematic classes that helped them in entering the university; was a participant in various international trainings and exchanges abroad, etc.  However, the most memorable part was the two-day fellows' meetings, where we had the opportunity to come together to share our experiences, challenges, and success stories.

Thanks to the financial support of UCARE sponsors, I attended English language and conversation courses, gained new knowledge and skills, participated in various international events, took driving courses and passed my driver's license. He also helped my younger sister, who was studying in Lviv, whenever possible.

In 2015, I obtained a master's degree in economics and decided not to work in my specialty, but to combine my activities with helping people in need. That is, I started working in social projects. My first job was at Caritas Kyiv, where I coordinated the project "Mobile work with youth in Ukraine".  Our target audience was street children, families living in difficult life circumstances (DHC) and teenagers from among internally displaced persons (IDPs). After the end of the contract, I went to Bulgaria for a one-year volunteer project from Erasmus +, where I and volunteers from Italy and Spain worked with Roma living in the ghetto. We held various visit and classes on the topic "EU without violence and aggression", which revealed such concepts as sexual and physical violence, discrimination, tolerance, aggression and practical knowledge for their prevention. After returning to Ukraine, I went to work for the public organization "Building Ukraine Together", where we rebuilt houses destroyed by the war in the east of Ukraine and helped people in need.  Before the start of the full-scale war, I managed to work for half a year as a coordinator in the Proton project, which provided an opportunity for people of retirement age to study for free at the "University of the Third Age." That is, the participants of this project attended classes as university students.

When the war broke out, I volunteered to defend Ukraine and took up arms. I took part in military operations in the east of Ukraine, where I received a bullet wound. I am currently undergoing treatment and rehabilitation in Lviv.

Life goes on……….we WILL WIN because the truth and GOD are with us!

СЛАВА УКРАЇНІ !!!

GLORY TO UKRAINE !!!”

-Pavlo Koval