The girl from Haryana has decided to remain in the war-torn country to support her landlord’s wife and three children.
A 17-year old medical student from Haryana has steadfastly refused to leave war-torn Ukraine to help the family of her landlord who has joined the nation’s army to fight the advancing Russian forces. Despite facing a grave threat of war, Neha has decided to remain holed up in a bunker in Kyiv with his landlord’s wife and three young children, even though she got an opportunity to get evacuated.
“I may or may not live, but I will not abandon these children and their mother in these circumstances,” Neha told her mother, a teacher living in Charkhi Dadri, Haryana.
When Neha first arrived in Ukraine, she was unable to find accommodation at a hostel and decided to rent a space at the house of a construction engineer in Kyiv.
Savita Jakhar, a close friend of Neha’s mother, told The Tribune, “Neha got attached to the children of the house-owner. She got advisories to leave the country as the war seemed imminent. Her mother made frantic efforts to arrange for her daughter’s evacuation. Finally, the girl got an opportunity to cross over to Romania, but she refused to abandon the affectionate family she has been staying with at this critical juncture.” Savita said that Neha’s family members and acquaintances have been trying to convince her to return to India, but she has plainly and firmly refused to do so.
Savita, an educator who belongs to Jhanswa village in Jhajjar district of Haryana, is now a French national presently based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In a Facebook post Savita wrote, “It’s going to be 4 a.m. I feel restless and couldn’t sleep all night. A very close friend’s 17-year-old daughter is stuck in Kyiv where she had gone to pursue her bachelor’s degree…The owner of the house where she has been staying joined the army a couple of days ago. As of now, the girl is staying in a bunker with the home-owner’s wife and three children,”.
“More than her own mother, she is more concerned about the mother who is now alone with her kids.”, Savita added.
Neha lost her father, an army-man, a couple of years ago. She got admission in a medical college in Ukraine in 2021.
Needless to say, Neha’s father would indeed be proud of his daughter’s fearlessness and compassion.
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