Cork charity appealing for help to provide home for woman who survived unimaginable abuse

A CORK charity is appealing for help to provide an apartment to a young woman who survived unimaginable abuse as a child, was part of a gang of street children in Kyiv despite having advanced scoliosis, and as an adult rescued a soldier from Russian sniper fire.

Masha Zakrevska was barely seven when she ran away from abuse in her family home, a tiny child with a severe curve in her spine, becoming part of a gang of children surviving on the streets, sleeping in cellars, and sniffing glue to numb themselves.

She was eight when a Christian aid-worker helped her and her friends, giving them shelter, and treating them with kindness, and putting her in touch with Fiona Corcoran, the founder of Cork charity The Greater Chernobyl Cause.

Life-altering surgery was arranged by Ms Corcoran when Ms Zakrevska was 14 to correct the curvature in her spine, and now, 20 years on, Ms Corcoran is raising funds to buy the Kyiv native an apartment.

“My dream is to have a dog,” Ms Zakrevska said. “Having a place would allow me to do that.” She was living

on the streets of Kyiv, one of six children in a gang, when she met Roman Korniyko, founder of the Ukrainian charity Otchiy Dim (Father’s House).

“I must have been about six or seven when I ran away and started my independent life on the streets,” Ms Zakrevska said. “We were just hanging around together and sniffing a lot of glue as a means to distract ourselves from the hunger. It was a very common thing for street children to do.

“When Roman introduced himself one day, he said he wanted to offer us help. We were aggressive from being on the streets, so our instincts told us not to trust him, instantly. Each one of us had a self-defence mechanism toward every adult,” she said.

“We had to be very careful. Roman said he was a Christian. We did not take this well, at first, because so many people used to take advantage of children. We were tough, because we had to be.”

To the children’s surprise, Mr Korniyko proved true to his word, and they found him “not just a Christian of words [but] a Christian in his actions, too”, and he bought the children new clothes and slowly earned their trust, treating them “as anyone would their own children”.

“He invited us over to his apartment, where he lived with his family. We were able to have shower, drink some hot tea, and eat a meal that his wife cooked.

“He rented an apartment for us, so we could have a place to stay overnight, instead of going back on the streets.” When Mr Korniyko was attempting to raise funds for surgery for Ms Zakrevska’s scoliosis, it was Ms Corcoran who stepped in to help.

“Roman … had reached out to every country for help and Ireland was the one that came back. It was Fiona Corcoran, from The Greater Chernobyl Cause, who ended up funding the surgery. The curvature meant that the organs had no space to grow and that was the real danger. The surgery was so vital,” Ms Zakrevska said.

Volunteering on the frontline

The surgery was successful, and a decade later, in 2014, Russia annexed Crimea. Ms Zakrevska’s friends thought she was visiting the seaside, but, instead, she had volunteered on the frontline in Shchastia, in the Luhansk province.

“That was what I told everyone, because I knew that no one would support me in that decision,” she said. “They would think that it was too dangerous for me.”

And it was dangerous. A soldier had been shot and wounded, and the sniper who had shot him was still in the area. A medic who had gone to the soldier’s aid had been killed, and Ms Zakrevska decided she would help.

Her foster mother and Mr Korniyko only realised where she was when they received what might well have been her last text message. “They were the ones that I most cared about, so I wanted to make sure I said goodbye.

“My text was something along the lines of, ‘I’m about to attempt to rescue a wounded soldier, if I make it, great. However, if I don’t, I want to say goodbye’.” Her loved ones were horrified, and the commander of her military unit had reservations about the rescue too.

“There was no way, as a woman, he said, that I would be able to carry such a big and wounded soldier.

“He didn’t want me risking my life until I pointed out that because I was so small, I’d have less of a chance of being seen by the sniper and would probably get away with it.”

When she got to the wounded soldier, even he laughed at the unlikely sight of his tiny rescuer, but, against all odds, she dragged him to safety.

“Even though the medic who had attempted to save him was shot dead, I didn’t feel scared. All I felt was adrenaline. I knew what I had to do. Whatever the outcome was, I had to try.” 

Fully 10 years later, she is still remembered for her heroism on the front line. “The soldier has thanked me for saving his life many times. His family also reached out to me.” 

Finding joy again

However, the incident took its toll on Ms Zakrevska, who experiences back pain to this day.

“I had a lot of complaints about my back after that, but there was no real medical treatment or proper recovery. I just kind of went along with the pain.” It marked her in other ways, too. “I can recall a lot of anger after that experience. When your whole life is on the line, and you have seen somebody else losing their life trying to save another person, it’s hard to watch people just getting on with everything.

“I started to feel this rage inside of me. I wondered how it was possible to be happy when all these things are happening on the frontline and people are dying.” 

What has saved her and helped her find joy again has been working with children and other orphans at Otchiy Dim.

“It was a means of rehabilitation for me. My work there was as effective as taking a pill. To share that love and have it returned to you is the purest thing,” she said.

Currently residing in accommodation provided by the charity, she said she was hopeful she might one day have a place of her own.

• For further information, please email info@greaterchernobylcause.ie.