MARGAO
Another traumatising story from war-torn Ukraine has come to the fore as another young girl student from Goa returned home on Friday.
Narrating the trauma she and many Indian students had to undergo in Ukraine till they crossed over to Romania, a young student from Pedda-Benaulim Joelifa Mary Goes said the students not only escaped from the bombing and firing in Ukraine, but had to fight the bitter cold at the Ukrainian border in minus four degree as they had to stand in a queue for 12 hours just to cross over to Romania.
Studying second year medicine at Vinnytsia in Ukraine, Joelifa said she and other students had gone around to purchase groceries and water when Russia launched the attack on February 24. “We had gone too far to lay our hands on rice, dal and water, but had to return back swiftly as there were sirens everywhere,” she said.
Joelifa and other colleagues spent two days and nights inside an overcrowded bunker at Vinnytsia as the sirens were too scary. “Since the situation was only going from bad to worse, we hired private buses to head to the border with Romania.”
Her ordeal did not end these. These young students had to face scary and traumatising situation at the border, where people from Africa, India and even from Ukraine were in a queue to get over to the other side of the border. “We were in the queue for 12-long hours. It was snowing and the temperature was minus five degrees. It was freezing with no shelter, food and water. Many young students fainted, but we all kept pushing the line before we all finally crossed the border and entered Romania,” she recalled.
Joelifa said the Indian embassy and Romanian authorities arranged shelter, food and buses for the students, before they were all taken to the airport, where they had to wait for two days, before they were flown to India. Joelifa was welcomed at the Dabolim airport by Salcete Jt Mamlatdar Rosario Carvalho and her mother Alina Goes.
