Berlin.
A doctor and nurse from Ukraine tell how they experienced 2022 with war, flight and a new start in Germany.
Every bed in the ward is occupied. The Department of ENT and Orthodontics treats everything that happens to and in the head. Tonsillitis, tumors, ears. The nurses and doctors on the sixth floor of the ward block of the Charité Campus Benjamin Franklin in western Berlin are busy running down the hall, from one room to the next, talking to patients, caring for them, examining them, smiling. A woman in this team is Oksana Bodnaruk. She is just leaving the office, there are cookies on the table behind her, and a small Christmas tree is lit.
Oksana Bodnaruk is currently employed as a nurse. She fled to Germany from Ukraine in March before the war. When asked how she is doing in Berlin, she answers: “I’m lucky.” A sentence behind which a whole year of fear, fighting, surviving and concern for her husband Vasyl hides.
War: 1,036,135 Ukrainians fled from Ukraine to Germany
Oksana Bodnaruk is one of 1,036,135 refugees from Ukraine in Germany who, according to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, are registered in the Central Register of Foreigners. Most of them are women and children. Since the general mobilization, men between the ages of 18 and 60 have been banned from leaving the country. So does Mrs. Bodnaruk’s husband. He is 50 years old, is considered a reservist and was a police officer before the war. Now he works for a company and protects the city of Czernowicz and ensures internal security.
In March, nurse Oksana fled to Berlin by bus before the war in Ukraine. When the 48-year-old thinks of her husband, who was left behind, her brown eyes darken at first, until tears come to her eyes.
What did the nurse from Ukraine experience in Germany?
We agreed to talk about how her past year was. How Germany feels to her – and how she is doing today. She is looking for a meeting room to talk in peace. Later, another Ukrainian will join them. The psychiatrist Dr. Valentyna Mazhbits, she too fled in March, she too had to leave her husband behind. And as bad as the reason these two are here is. Germany urgently needs the doctor and the nurse, not only since the corona pandemic has the nursing shortage and shortage of skilled workers become noticeable in the country. A problem that the traffic light coalition sees as one of its most important issues. Nursing staff should get a better salary, a new type of training was decided because the forecasts are scary. Of the Barmer care report It comes down to the fact that 180,000 additional full-time positions will be needed in nursing alone in 2030.
Oksana Bodnaruk would have to roll out the red carpet for her to stay. The Charité tries to help her with a welcome team. They even found an apartment for her. Because so far, the Ukrainian has lived with her 25-year-old daughter. She has been studying law in Germany for years and was of course one of the reasons why the nurse fled to Berlin.
Were you welcomed in Germany?
How do the two look back on the year 2022 – and were they welcomed in Germany?
In the corridor of the ward, Oksana Bodnaruk has a brief chat with ward manager Kristin Schöbel. It’s about your records and documents that identify you as a nurse. Much of this has to be translated and officially certified. She already has all the documents together. All references, birth and marriage certificates, also a booklet, similar to a passport, in which you enter every professional station in the Ukraine. “The bureaucracy in Germany is crazy – but necessary,” says Schöbel. Oksana hopes that her professional qualification will soon be recognized in Germany. “You can tell that Oksana is a real nurse,” assures the ward nurse.
And Oksana Bodnaruk nods and smiles. She is happy about the compliment. As a young woman, she trained as a midwife in the Ukraine, later worked in various clinics in Czernowicz, most recently as a nurse in an ENT and a dental practice. Oksana already speaks German well, she has already reached the B1 language level, which means that she can converse quite well. B2, the level she needs, she would also need to study at university. “I’m still learning German,” says Oksana.
Arriving in Germany, she had this feeling first and foremost
What was your first thought when you reached Germany? “I’m safe, that’s what I thought, and I’ve been hoping ever since that everything will be fine. I hope the war won’t last that long.” Again her voice falters. She doesn’t need to say it, she’s thinking of her husband Vasyl at this moment. In October she was in Ukraine again to see him and get the documents that were still missing. She says it was difficult. The reunion, but also the reunion. After the war, she would like her husband to move to Germany as well. Even if they have to leave an apartment, friends and their in-laws behind. “Ukraine is already destroyed, it will take years to rebuild everything,” says the nurse.
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In the consultation room, the doctor Dr. Valentyna Mazhbits added, the two know each other. Both experience the same fate, but are very different. While Oksana Bodnaruk speaks better German and tells how much she misses her husband, Mazhbits does not openly admit her feelings. The 46-year-old prefers to talk about her research. When asked about it, she replies in English: “My strategy is to work, not suffer.” From a purely professional point of view, she has no time to lose. “Nothing changes when we are weak,” she says. Oksana has her translate what she just said and then nods in agreement.
The psychiatrist Valentyna Mazhbits also helps Ukrainians from Berlin
Valentyna Mazhbits is a psychiatrist, worked in Kyiv as a researcher and psychotherapist at the Ukrainian Research Institute of Psychiatry Ministry of Health and the Medikom Happy&Healthy chain of clinics, among others. Today she works at the Charité for the Solomiya project. The psychotherapists and psychologists of Solomiya offer digital counseling for refugees and people in Ukraine, explains Mazhbits. In the summer, Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil and Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser visited the Charité, also spoke to Bodnaruk and Mazhbits.
Heil said at the time that 1,500 agencies and authorities were involved in the process of integrating refugee professionals into the German labor market. Fast solutions and legal changes are needed to speed up this process. After all, the people from Ukraine are not only welcome, but “are also needed”. When asked what it was like for her that two German ministers were interested in her, Mazhbits replies: “Very friendly,” while laughing.
Mazhbits knows that with her education and experience, she is a sought-after top talent. The war and the new start in Germany have taught her one thing: “I can find work and a good job anywhere.” In order for her doctorate and her completed medical studies to be recognized in Germany, she needs her documents, she has all the documents, the medical association must have the specialist decide.
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Your biggest challenge in everyday life is the German language
Also in March, Valentyna Mazhbits traveled by train from Kyiv to Frankfurt. She moved to a refugee hotel with her two sons, then 10 and 17 years old, and a friend from her university helped her. She found new work relatively quickly, including a position at the Berlin Charité. The welcome team at the university hospital also helped her. The older son stayed in Frankfurt because he had already found a job as an IT expert in a company. Only the smaller one is still with her. Valentyna Mazhbits also had to leave her husband behind. He is an IT system administrator and he is also not allowed to leave the country. Luckily he hasn’t had to go to the front yet.
When asked how she felt at first in Germany, she says: “I never felt alone.” In addition, the Germans are very cordial, and she also likes their reserved manner. Rarely does anyone become loud or aggressive. “So many people have helped us so far, I want to give that back.” Her biggest challenge is the German language. To be recognized as a doctor, she needs language level C1, speak fluently and understand complicated texts. She is studying for this, but prefers to speak English to get through her everyday life in Germany.
Contact with home: only possible if the internet works
Every day she has contact with her husband via chats or video calls. But for that he needs electricity and the Internet, both of which are becoming more and more common in Kyiv. “It’s enough for me just to know that the green light is on by his name in the Telegram app. Then I know he’s still alive.” Only with him does she become soft. Only at home does she allow herself to be weak.
When asked what she does in her free time in Berlin, she replies with a bit of surprise: “I actually always work, my son also has to learn a lot and doesn’t know it any differently from Kyiv. So we are both busy, even at home.”
The ten-year-old attends an international school in Berlin while still studying for his Ukrainian class. Even if the digital lessons can no longer take place in Kyiv due to the poor internet connection. Because while the nurse Oksana does not want to return, the doctor Valentyna keeps her future open. “Who knows what will happen?” She thinks the war will last two or three years, but then she might go back. After all, she had everything in Kyiv: a nice apartment, good jobs, friends and a good family.
Besides the wish to see her husband again soon, is there another wish or something that she misses in Germany? “I dream of being able to give my son an electric piano.”
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