Sergey Kondratov was born in Kiev on January 24, 2021, exactly one year and a month before the war began. Sergey’s first word was not” mom”, not” tattoo”, or even” grandfather”, but for some reason “carrot”. “But then he got the coronavirus and stopped talking. This was a complication, ” recalls his mother, Sofia.
And then Russian missiles began to bomb Kiev.
In the first month of the war, sevenSergey’s me-7 people, Raven the cat and Kuzya the dog-went to Montenegro, to a Bar. It was quiet here, and she hoped things would get better and the stress would pass. But Seryozha did not start talking-at 1.5 years old, or at 1.7. and he could not concentrate on anything and almost did not sleep.
Sofia brought her son to the Sve Sam manor center for children with special needs. Sergey was assigned a teacher Anastasia Lukomskaya. “He was almost two years old,” says Anastasia, ” he didn’t talk at all, he was very closed, as if frozen, locked with a key.”
They were trained individually in groups of two, three, and sometimes four.once a week. “Six months later, even earlier, the key seemed to be found, Sergey thawed out, began to run, play and talk, mixing Russian, Ukrainian and Montenegrin words. All met and saw off: “Ciao!”And he loved the English nursery rhymes, too. My Favorite Is “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”.
“Seryozha became unrecognizable,” Sofia confirms, ” he talks, plays with the cat, rolls cars, and looks at pictures in books for a long time. Especially likes those where about butterflies and about space. But he became short-tempered, oftenfights. So, you know, hyperactive.”
Both Sofia and Anastasia are sure that you can not stop classes. “A short break — and he started tomumble, he swallows words, speaks indistinctly,” says Anastasia, ” Seryozha is actually a kind boy, aggressiveness and fights are the consequences of stress, illness and war. This can be adjusted, but it takes patience and time.”
“These classes are absolutely necessary for him,” says Sofia, ” I see how he changes after them. And how things slide when we don’t go to Sve Sam.”
Sofia doesn’t want to show Sergey’s face in social networks: “when he grows up and goes to school, it will be great if someone shows him these photos.” But for all this to happen, you need money that the family does not have.
Anastasia believes that now Sergey needs to work out 2-3 times a week. Each lesson lasts 1.5 hours and costs 15 euros.
In order for them to continue their studies, they need 120€ per month.
