Even before the war, Polina Tivova spent a lot of time with the German language.
The young Ukrainian is enrolled at the preparatory college at Heidelberg University.
She wants to become a German teacher, and her main concern here is failed exams.
"Since the war it's all been in the background," she says.
On February 21, she visited her family in Odessa.
Three days later, the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine begins.
Finally we drove to Germany via Hungary and Austria.
She had to leave many family members behind in the war zone.
She would like to get involved in helping other Ukrainians to overcome their own trauma of fleeing: "After my arrival, I immediately took up various jobs.
So I contacted Ms. Lustenhouwer”.
Through contact with Oksana Lustenhouwer, who teaches German at the preparatory college in Heidelberg, she finally came to the German-Ukrainian association “Freundschaft knows no borders”.
"We all thought together that we had to organize a German course," says Polina.
An anchor point for Ukrainian refugees in Germany is needed.
"Without language it becomes difficult".
Arsenii Basthenov from Kharkiv is also learning German at the preparatory college in Heidelberg and is involved in the association.
Without the voluntary support of the students and donations from the population, the association could not provide such help.
However, the quick organization of the language courses also shows that the desire to help is immense.