Only ten months after fleeing Kharkiv in western Ukraine, Iryna Ushakova started a job as a health and nursing care worker in a Frankfurt senior citizens' home on 16 January 2023. Shortly before Christmas, she was able to pass her B2 exam in German as the best student in the course. When the Russian army began bombing her city on 24 February 2022, she spent three weeks in the air-raid shelter of her apartment block with more than a hundred people. She knew that she had to survive for her son. He is studying in Poland, she wants to support him.
At first she fled to her son. But in Poland, the authorities told her that it would be difficult to find work and a flat. On 20 March 2022, she arrived in Frankfurt. A family she did not know before took her in. "I am so grateful to them, they are my heroes." Through her own research, Iryna Ushakova found the TalentOrange programme. In May she started the intensive German course - first online, since August 2022 in presence at the TalentOrange Campus. "I have learned so much," says Iryna Ushakova. Six lessons a day plus homework. Her good German now helps her at work in the senior citizens' home.
Tilman Frank, CEO of TalentOrange GmbH, says: "It is impressive how quickly and well Iryna has learned German. She has turned grief and despair over this senseless war into a valuable, meaningful career move."
Iryna Ushakova was so motivated in the German course that she studied every weekend. "It is not easy for Germany to take in so many people. Whoever comes here should work in their profession again as soon as possible." She has succeeded in this. Congratulations, dear Iryna!