Rybalov Mykola Ivanovych

Rybalov Mykola Ivanovych was born in 1936 in the city of Minusinsk (Russia).

When he was under three years old, his parents died in a car accident, and little Mykola was sent to a orphanage.

As a boy, he and his friends ran away from the orphanage to the nearest forest and wandered there in search of interesting things. Once they stumbled upon a box of ammunition (this was enough in the woods after the WWII). The contents, of course, were taken apart and used for the boyish amusements – everyone was doing his own thing.

Mykola was not lucky – a bomb exploded in his hands, which he did not have time to drop. So he lost four fingers on one hand.

After the orphanage he studied in a choreographic school, worked in the ballet. He was constantly ridiculed because of his short stature, so he had to train for a new occupation of a… tractor operator!!! He had worked on a tractor for many years.

Then a fell seriously ill. He does not remember how he ended up in Kyiv, he only knows that he has been living in the street for several years.

He has no relatives and no documents.

When he was found in the park near Sviatoshyno metro station, he began to ask us to send him to any shelter where he would not be evicted from, just to have a roof over his head.

The volunteers who knew Mykola Ivanovych warned that he drinks alcohol, but he explained to us that he drinks because of hopelessness and is ready to quit (and he really quit: while he was in the House of Mercy, he said he even had no desire to have a drink). We tried our best to create a family atmosphere for him for those two weeks he lived with us and to give him hope for a better life.

On Monday, we sent him to a shelter in Druzhkivka.