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How not to lose faith in the people and in Ukraine?
The preservation of Ukrainian identity under temporary occupation was addressed during the discussion at the National Conference regarding Temporarily Occupied Territories.
Co-founder of the Charitable Foundation "Voices of Children", as a participant in the discussion, shared two childhood stories from the occupation and emphasized the importance of unity and coordinated efforts among the volunteers. Please find the text of the speech below.
"I have witnessed numerous instances when the help from one person to another – a volunteer network of compassionate people, could address 90% of the needs.
The needs which were covered by ordinary Ukrainians.
If any international humanitarian mission reaches the front line, they have to return in a few hours because of security policies.
But for us – Ukrainians, there is no difference, and if necessary, we jump into a battered car, negotiate with the soldiers at the military checkpoint, and go to the village that the OSCE or other organizations cannot reach.
I have examples of children demonstrating resilience in temporarily occupied territories.
But first, it should be noted that the most important thing in the occupied territory is to survive, not to be heroic, because life holds the utmost value.
The children survive as they can, often employing very heroic actions.
In 2016, I wrote an article, and the grandfather of a girl who lived in Horlivka sent me a letter. The grandfather had left the occupied territories, and she stayed there with her parents.
Her name was Mariika.
This story can already be told because it will not harm anyone.
The grandfather wrote that Mariika's parents wouldn't let her out of Horlivka because they were completely under the influence of russian propaganda. However the girl resisted, she had a pure Ukrainian soul – she wrote essays, protested and spoke Ukrainian on purpose.
Her grandfather felt that she could get into trouble and worried about her a lot, especially about her psychological state – she could neither eat nor sleep. And then the idea came up to take her out, as she could no longer see those misfortune-bringers tricolor flags on the streets.
Therefore, the grandfather wrote to me, "Could you find a way to help her escape?"
I replied that this was hardly possible for a child from the occupied territory. Still I had a group of people to whom I told this story and asked for help.
We took a really bold step because the girl was underage, and she desperately wanted to escape from the occupation, to the place her grandfather awaited her. The main thing was to organize the departure.
People have helped a lot – one person guided her onto a bus in Horlivka headed to a specific point, another one met her at the bus station in the next specific location, and a third person drove her, by car, to the spot next to the front line where she could cross on foot.
We waited for Mariika in the gray zone. For the occupiers, she had concocted a story that she was coming with a cake and flowers to congratulate her grandmother on her birthday. When, she arrived we met her, took her with us, and that is how she escaped from that occupation.
We handed her over to the grandfather.
Later, her father came and took the girl back to Horlivka. He punished her and locked her up at home. Resulting in her once again refraining from eating. The local psychologist had already told her parents that the child could have done something to herself if they didn't let her come back to Ukraine. Eventually, they reconciled and allowed her to reunite with her grandfather.
Speaking of now, she has graduated from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and works as a journalist in one of the Ukrainian media.
This is the example of one story out of millions, about how children can fight and I am thankful to God – this story was a happy one.
Regardless, there are many stories when a child could not break through.
In such cases, children feel that they are in circumstances where they cannot do anything.
You feel like you're in a cage, and you can't influence this reality. You are already 15 or 16 years old, and you consciously understand what you are opting for, and what you don't.
There is also a story of a girl named Sofiia from Enerhodar, whose parents simply did not let her out of the occupation. The girl said that she kept herself busy with all possible activities the teenagers do, just to kill time, and not to see the reality outside the window, while remaining in the reality where she wanted to be.
Belief is very important. Children need to know that we want to bring them back, restore their childhood. The time, in the context of children, is crucial. The longer a child is without access to us, to information from Ukraine – the worse it gets. This is quite literal. A child may resist for a year, two, or even three, but not an entire lifetime. Therefore, time is of the essence in our efforts, to help us save people from there.”
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