HOLLYWOOD, FLA. (WSVN) - A family that left their war-torn homeland will now call South Florida “home sweet home.” A mother and her two daughters escaped Ukraine, and they now have a place of their own right here in South Florida.
Olga Sadretdinov and her two daughters touched the warm water and sand of their new home on Hollywood Beach.
Their home of Mariupol, Ukriane is now destroyed. They spent four weeks hiding in a basement with no food, no water and no heat.
Russian troops were taking them to a filtration camp when they were somehow able to escape and make it to Poland, then Mexico and eventually the United States only a few days before Mother’s Day.
4Ever Young in Fort Lauderdale treated Olga to a spa day and that was when Frank Willenborg saw their story on 7News.
“I was devastated,” Willenborg said. “I saw them, I saw the picture of the mother and two kids. They just had nothing.”
Tuesday, he moved them from their one bedroom studio in Lauderdale Lakes to his empty apartment in Hollywood Beach.
“I said, I have a place and somebody needs a home, and I just can’t let it go empty,” said Willenborg.
For the first time since fleeing their homeland, Olga and her daughters felt the familiar feeling of home.
“It’s a reminder of our house,” said a translator.
They each have a bed, running water and 8-year-old Vavara is beginning the third grade Wednesday.
“Big elementary school,” said Varvara through a translator.
South Florida has already been very generous to the family, and the GoFundMe for them has continued to grow.
Now, all that Olga and her daughter want is to become part of the community and get a job.
“We want to be useful for this country, and we want to work,” said Oryna through a translator.
As for now, though their home of Ukraine is in ruins and may be unrecognizable, they are still proud to call it their home.
“Our city has Russian flag, but it doesn’t mean anything. It was Ukraine and it still is Ukraine,” said Oryna through a translator.
Now, South Florida has become their new home, and it is all they could ever ask for.
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