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MONTROSE, Minn. (WCCO) — A household staying in Montrose, Minnesota has been via the unimaginable to get to right here. Simply weeks in the past, they had been fleeing for his or her lives, attempting to get out of Ukraine and away from the battle to come back stick with household right here, to begin new lives after the battle pressured them to flee.
At 80 years outdated, Valentina Bardash is beginning over. She not too long ago fled Mariupol, Ukraine.
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“We escaped in nice worry. The troops bombed the whole lot. Every thing is destroyed,” mentioned Bardash. “Actually I took the shirt off my again, some paperwork and ran away.”
Alina Kokhan describes the life she had and the way rapidly it was torn to shreds, making it clear that, even when the battle ended tomorrow, there can be virtually nothing to return to.
“I need to go house. I actually need to go house,” mentioned Kokhan.
After weeks in Mariupol sheltering with 100 others — with out warmth, working water or electrical energy — Bardash, her niece Natella Dzhelali, and Kokhan (Dzhelali’s niece) went for it.
“We knew we had been both going to die right here or we’re going to die within the street escaping,” mentioned Kokhan.
They drove west till their automotive broke down then hitched a trip to the Moldovan border — shifting from Moldova to Romania to Italy to Madrid to Mexico Metropolis, then to Tijuana the place they walked throughout into San Diego in search of asylum, then onto Minnesota. All this with two youngsters in tow.
And in any case that the work begins.
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“They should apply for a short lived safety standing,” mentioned immigration lawyer Nadia Roife with Roife Regulation Group who helps them and different households just do that after they arrive right here in Minnesota. A course of that she mentioned might take months on the shorter finish.
Roife and her colleagues arrange a free authorized clinic at a church in Coon Rapids over the weekend to get paperwork going for Ukranian households attempting to begin new lives right here in Minnesota.
“They’re desirous to work,” mentioned Roife.
Dzhelali was a dentist at house, her daughter a surgeon.
“I perceive that I could have to review once more and I don’t know if it’s potential in my age,” mentioned Dzhelali.
However till they get on their ft, others can have their again.
“We had been the fortunate ones,” mentioned Dzhelali.
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Roife is conscious of roughly 300 to 500 folks in Minnesota who want this type of help. She’s going to maintain internet hosting these free authorized clinics so long as they’re wanted.
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