I woke up with a rush of adrenaline. Eyes wide open, heart racing, as if I had somewhere to be. I tried to remember if it was a dream that woke me up but in a couple of seconds I understood that it wasn’t; reached for the phone to read the news and see what is happening in Ukraine after a 3 hours sleep. It was 3:30 in the morning and by the time I was caught up with the news, I knew I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, so I got out of bed and started folding the clothes I had washed and prepared for the refugees, to send them out with a transport.

In the first few days of this war I was bewildered and in my sweet innocence, believed that this cannot happen, and everything will just stop, any minute now. Minutes kept passing and with each minute the situation kept escalating and along with it so did my anxiety, fear and compassion for Ukraine. The first 2 days I tried not to watch the news because I knew ...