Tranquility and tranquility for the 50 refugees who arrived in the 98-resident town of Castellioni.

Messengers for Peace has transformed the city into the interior of Castellონისn and with only 98 neighbors, Torechiva, the only emergency center in Spain where Ukrainian refugees are taken and where up to 50 people live, especially with children who find peace and quiet in a traumatic escape.

The NGO’s vice-president, Jose Osuna, accompanies EFE on a visit to the center with Oksana Krizmanowska, who has lived in the nearby town of Onda for some time and works as both a translator and a liaison for families. They contacted him to flee Ukraine.

The mountains of the Sierra de Espadán Natural Park encompass this small inland municipality with its picturesque natural surroundings and in which the NGO has set up an old juvenile center – now unusable – where displaced Ukrainian families fleeing the war.

Assistance and full cooperation

Since the beginning of the conflict, Messengers for Peace has provided 14 buses to transport refugees, six of them to Spain, a country where more than 700 people were cared for, and another 600 to other countries. On the ground, they delivered over 30,000 meals a day through the World Central Kitchen and worked in coordination with more than 40 entities.

Osuna is especially proud of this center, which can accommodate up to 100 people and is a pioneer in Spain, highlighting the one where the work was done endlessly and has three buildings, workshops, gardens, a greenhouse and various common areas perfectly conditioned.

He appreciates the support of the Diputación de Castellón and, in particular, the sensitivity of his Vice President and Vice President for Social Affairs, Patricia Puerta, for his prompt response and full support for the project.

Puerta explained to EFE that he felt a special obligation to help these people and expressed a desire to continue to support everything that is available to the Provincial Institute.

In addition, city residents, as its mayor, Esteban Salas, explained to EFE, “got involved from the first moment” and cooperated in “cleaning, making beds, curtains, preparing rooms and preparing food.” The first week. ” Also, adds Salas, Sakrebulo employees have carried out repairs, brought firewood and gas and are collecting documents on administrative procedures.

Stories to be told

While browsing the houses, families have breakfast, cook, play with the children, talk, enjoy the sun after a few weeks of bad weather, and greet the visitor with a smile.

Marina and Ivan lived in Bucha and came out with the cat in their adapted car (he has a physical disability and needs a wheelchair). They were the first to come to this center, with the environment “very beautiful and very different from our house, surrounded by the Carpathians.”

They say that the first thing they want is to learn Spanish, and they say that it is difficult to leave Ukraine: “Ivan’s papers were asked to justify his disability and – with a smile – of course we told him. “It does not have legs that are not big enough, of course.”

Another woman, Valentina, answers her children with an energetic “yes” when we ask her three children if they want to go to school. They want training too, though many children have been found playing in the center of Torechiva.

Valentina left her husband in her hometown, north of Kiev, and went with her children “for fear of leaving everything behind.” The bomber struck near his home, prompting him to travel to the Polish border “and he did not know where or when they would be safe.”

Sleeping in refugee centers After a few days of travel, long journey by train, bus and foot, he finally settled into this house where he works hard to arrange meals.

All this in the kitchen, where there is also Olena’s 17-year-old son, who plays with Valentina’s children, but has melancholy in his eyes because he left another 23-year-old son in Ukraine, who at least remains in reserve. He is called on the front.

There was hell

Oksana, who works as a translator and comforts families, worries about her 82-year-old mother, who is unable to leave Ukraine and has difficulty accessing food. “He came to eat dog food,” he says.

It was not difficult for Tetiana, who has movement problems, to leave Ukraine and arrived in Torechiva, which has become a “hell” from Bucha, she said, along with her disabled granddaughter, daughter and three other children.

“The tanks were on our street, the Russian military took us out and put my disabled granddaughter on the second bus and I on the other bus, so I panicked,” Tetiana said. Finally, with the help of a Russian soldier, he traveled with his grandchildren and left the city.

A promising horizon

“This is not the way,” he said, adding that the arrival of people from Ukraine could help fight depopulation: “These people need peace and tranquility and recovery. For all the horror that has happened.

Osuna adds that they are now focused on teaching minors – for which they are collaborating with the Montessori School in Valencia, where children are already doing Easter activities – in workshops and Spanish classes, and on public health. Who live in this center.