My life is a bunker

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My life is a bunker

Bomb shelter, 50 meter on the left. Last 12 and 15 of April 2015, with the help of Tomas Vlach, emergency coordinator for the NGO "People in Need", NurPhoto photographer visited families living in old cold war bunkers in the city of Marinka and Petrovsky - Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. They live there for two reasons: either their houses got demolished or damaged by the fighting in between Ukrainian army and the separatists. Or, they are just afraid, traumatize by the constant sound of the mortars, bombs, automatic weapons, etc so they prefer to abandoned their home and find refuge in these old underground concrete constructions. Most of the families began abandoning their houses last august as the battle between the protagonists was extremely intensive. These bunkers are located in the separatists control zone so access for humanitarian organizations is possible but very difficult to organize in a war area. Some of the bunkers have electricity but most of them don't have any water system. So either humanitarian organization bring bottles of water or they run during the day to their houses to fill-up bottle. The walls of the bunkers have no finish on it so, a constant white dust from the cement is lying on beds, tables, or raise-up when you walk even if the families do their best to clean it up. Since end of cold war, these bunkers are not in use so the owners (coal mines, municipality, etc.) tolerate these squatters for humanitarian reasons. Most of the mothers of family admit that they are alone with their kids, that they are either divorce, widow or the husband simply went away when the conflict began so abandoning families to its own fate. These families received close to nothing from municipalities. Sometimes, soldiers stop by and give them some of their foods. NGO "People in Need", visits them as often they can to have a clear vision of their needs but also provide them with foods, clothes, medications, etc. When you ask them what they would do if they could, same


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