BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — A 27-year-old mother of two kids speaks on her long journey coming to Western New York.
Anna Olitska sits down with 7 News reporter Yoselin Person and expresses being grateful for starting a new life with her kids in Buffalo, but the journey coming to WNY won’t be forgotten.
Anna has a seven-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter from Kyiv who all seek refuge in Buffalo after escaping the war in Ukraine.
“Sometimes my kids ask me, mom, are we never going back to Ukraine?” she says. “When are we flying back to Ukraine?”
Anna says she still remembers the sirens from the beginning of the war.
“We can hear it in our heads,” she says.
Anna tells me she and her kids have PTSD from the start of the war.
“The apartment that I live at they have trains and the kids are scared of the sounds,” she expresses.
Anna and her kids have been one of 125 families that the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America in WNY has helped.
She comes to this country with a master's degree in Computer Science and Secondary Education.
“I love computers too much,” Anna says. “I want to work with a lot of data, a lot of numbers.”
For now, Anna works at the Ukraine Welcome Center as a translator, but of course, she faces some challenges.
“I have no car, the second problem is no full day of work,” she explains. “I need a lot of money to pay rent and to buy a car and to be able to buy good food for my kids.”
Anna's kids have been eager to learn when they stepped foot in school in Buffalo.
“The school bus is their favorite thing they’re learning English at school,” she says. “I don’t know how they communicate in school but they do it.”
Anna Olitska tells 7 News she’s well aware of the responsibilities she has to take on while starting a new life with her two children in Buffalo.
“I have a big obligation, I need to help them build their life that they have with me in this country,” she says. “And I have with them and everything is in my hands.”
The Ukraine Welcome Center located at 207 Military Rd, is open Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 6 pm-9 pm where Anna and other Ukrainian translators will be able to help assist with any information.
The center is also taking donations.
