Hello! My name is Asma Adaeva. I was born in Grozny, the capital city of Chechnya. Now I live in Villach, Austria. I want to say something about my life.

I was outside with my mother when the great war started. The soldiers fired over our heads and I thought it was over for us but we ran into the cellar. During the night I couldn’t sleep. My mother was crying almost every night and it was frightening me too. I had the feeling that I would die. On the day that this great war began, no one was in Grozny. We went back to Nazran at that time. After a while there was not such a big war in Grozny so we went back. It looked terrible. Our home was broken from a bombing so we went to stay at our friends house. The soldiers came to us and threw all the toys that I had around the bed. Then we had to leave our homeland. We wanted to go to Europe and so here we are.

I cannot remember everything about our trip but I know we came by train. In the first days it was really hard to be in Austria as I couldn’t speak German. I liked the beauty of Austria though. After that I started to go school and it became better and better. Since then I have made many friends. Now it is just a bit difficult but not like before. I often watch television and I do not like when somebody calls me a foreigner and says that they would shoot us in other countries. If someone came to my country, I would help them.

When I finish school, I want to become a teacher or a police officer. I like Austria a lot. I think of both Chechnya and Austria as my home. One thing that I know well is that to live in war is really hard.

I have always wanted to ask Putin: Why did you destroy our house? Why have you ruined my school? Why did you send your soldiers to our homeland? We have not done anything.

I wish everyone a nice and good life.

Asma Adaeva
13 year old Chechen refugee in Austri

*The letter was translated by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco