Vysoké Tatry – 6th April 2022 They fled the war and have found refuge at the foot of the Tatras. The “Tatry máme radi” (We like the Tatras) civic has offered homes to 53 people from Ukraine in Veľká Lomnica and has been helping them integrate into the life organisation in cooperation with Tatry mountain resorts (TMR). Children have started to go to school, adults have started to work.
One woman had worked in a bank, another one had been an economist, the third one had worked in a tobacco shop and the last one is still working online from Slovakia. Ukrainian women who plucked up their courage, left their homes, husbands, parents and grandparents and came to Slovakia with their kids to search for help. They have found it thanks to the “Tatry máme radi” civic organisation and TMR in Veľká Lomnica. “They are mostly mothers with children who fled the war, left their homes and jobs. We drove them to the Tatras, gave them a place to stay at, arranged education for children in cooperation with local self-governments, offered jobs to the women. After all the horror they had gone through, a new home and work represent the first values they can rely on in a new environment,” said Diana Migaľová from the “Tatry máme radi” association.
Olga, Ljudmila, Ira and Oksana. That’s how four brave women from Ukraine are called. When they recall the events in their home country, each of their stories makes everyone shiver. “We came from Kyiv to Slovakia. When we were there, the city was not bombarded yet,” started Olga. “But alarming sirens sounded every two hours at night to warn people anyway. We had to pack our things and hide each time. One man explained to me that once a rocket was fired, nobody could know where it might land.” She said in her opinion, the situation in Mariupol had already been catastrophic at that time. “People were thirsty, hungry, there were stones everywhere and people were dying. This has to be stopped,” she added. The women didn’t have any other choice but to take a few things with them and leave without knowing where. “They transported us by buses that were collecting people and driving them to the state borders.” Olga came to Veľká Lomnica together with her daughter-in-law and grandson. Before that, she had been working as an economist in a bank. However, after arriving in Slovakia, she didn’t want just to sit without doing anything. Today, a vacuum cleaner is her best friend. She is helping as a chambermaid in Grandhotel Praha**** in Tatranská Lomnica and in the Horec suites complex. As she admitted, it is difficult to get used to a completely different activity, but she knows she needs money.
“It is not easy to find quality employees in the field of tourism after the corona era. But these women have decided to accept our offer although they had had completely different jobs at home and are starting to work in our facilities – in the hotels in the Tatras and in our water park in the Liptov region. And it is not only about money but also the way how to handle the difficult situation they have found themselves in,” added Marek Schwarz, the HR department director at TMR. “We want and need to help them. These are people who were working and want to work. It is our duty to do our best to offer them a new home with everything that is part of it. If we help them, I am sure they will help us too,” concluded Igor Rattaj, the Chairman of the Board of TMR.
