βWe needed a miracle and God helped us,β said Malka Bukiet, the Israeli principal of Alumim, a childrenβs home in Ukraine.
For Malka Bukiet, the Israeli principal of Alumim, a children’s home in the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr, the most frightening moment of her escape from the war-torn nation — with 100 children aged six months to 17 years in tow — was not the sirens or bombs, but the moment they reached the border with Romania.
“We didn’t have proper travel documents for all the children. We just couldn’t get them in time and I was so afraid they wouldn’t let us all through. What would I do if some of them could go and others couldn’t?”
Luckily, the border guards just came on the bus, asked if there were any men aged 18 or over, and let them through. Only the driver had to turn back.
“We needed a miracle and God helped us. No one even looked at our documents. It was something unnatural,” admits Bukiet.