10 year old Veronika attended OxyCamp, Slavske in December 2023

Before the war, Veronika lived in Kharkiv, and after the invasion, she moved to Lviv with her mother where they spent all their time together as her mother was not working at the time. At the start of camp, the separation from her mother was incredibly challenging; Veroika cried throughout the whole first day, it was the first time they had been separated for such an extended period.

However, by the second day, during the discovery session, Veronika began to grow in confident and not only answered all the questions but also actively posed some herself.

As she was not from a religious family she has never heard stories from the Bible before before. The conversations with the camp leader was longer than usual because her interest in "what happened next" was greater than going to the pool!

Veronika was particularly struck by how often she did things that had negative consequences, even though it was so easy to avoid them. At the end of this discovery she shared what she had learnt "I will learn to listen to my mother more and heed the advice of relatives"

At the end of the camp, she was very grateful that she had been given the opportunity to attend the camp and spend this time together with the other children and leaders. She said that she would definitely come to the post-camp meetings because she was as comfortable and felt as good with the campers and camp leaders as she does with her mother.