Those little things that count in Severodonetsk

It was still warm when I arrived in September in Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine. In this small city located on 30 kilometers from the contact line I would assist the local NGO Postup in awareness raising on human rights and conducting different educational activities. Though as a volunteer I was not allowed to come any close the contact line then 5 kilometers, I would ‘see’ the conflict on a daily basis through our contact with the locals and IDP’s, or seeing the soldiers and army tanks heading to the front.

As the autumn arrived, temperature dropped below zero and white snow covered this grey Soviet city, daily life was taking place inside most of my stay. On a weekly basis I would conduct different weekly activities: my local English speaking clubs for teenagers and for adults, a psychosocial creative activity for children on the Saturday morning, weekly teaching on a local school. We would visit schools in the region and talk about different issues.

On Thursday nights it was time for women issues. As I am convinced that there are many women intimate subjects that deserve more attention and less taboo feelings, I started together with my colleague volunteer a Women circle. We talked about issues like menstruation, PMS, sexual consent, vulnerability of woman, but also practiced self-defense. We even found a gynecologist that would talk about different ways of contraception and would any answer any question about health. After some months we created a little group of women that would regularly visit our group in an atmosphere of trust.

No big mountains were moved by me, but it are those little things, that were very rewarding and made this all worth it. The happy faces of people that really appreciated the activities we organized, or the students in my weekly class that in the last lesson all would thank me in English.

Ukraine according to my grandmother

Years ago, when my grandmother was still alive, I had a terrible image of what life in Ukraine should be. Grandmother would use Ukraine as a synonym to a terrible place where you would not want to go, let alone live. In the months before my deployment in Ukraine I was making jokes about this, but when the departure date would come closer, I realized I might better not mock this. 

After arriving here in Severodonetsk I was relieved. It is true that in this grey Sovietic city the street scene is dominated by many sterotypes. The iconic Lada cars and the sweet buchanka's (a little van in the form of a square bread, in Russian called buchanka) aren't rare at all. The condition of the roads in general is terrible. Our driver and colleague André luckily is a professional in avoding the holes, but anyway needs to repair his car almost every week.  Someone told me that the level of corruption of a certain region can be measured by the condition of the roads. The more money is taken away, the less is left to maintain among other the roads. This theory does not promise any good for our region, but I try not to think to much about this. 

In the meantime everbody is awaiting the big day that the heater will be switched on. This is centrally organized and cannot be switched on by the inhabitants themselves. The fifteenth of October was appointed to be the day, but due to high gasprices and relatively high temperatures for October, two weeks later the heater stil isn't on. That makes home a bit cold, but thanks to the warm and friendly inhabitants of Severodonetsk, this city is still pleasent to live. 

It was last week that I got to see the Ukraine that my grandmother probably was referring to. Together with my colleagues we went to visit babushka Katya. There - like 6 kilometres from the frontline - it looks like time stood still. Old and decayed houses, no running water and a toilet in the backyard. Hunchbacked babushka Katya is suffering from thyroid cancer and her overcoat looks like a patchwork blanket. She tells us she is seventy five years old, but looks like she is ninety. Mentally she seems to have everything in order. She lives from her pension and what she grows in her kitchengarden. 

Even though her house is located close to the front line, her village was spared the fightings. Her poor living conditions are no result of the ongoing conflict. People like babushka Katya, that you will find in every Ukrainian village, were already forgotten long before the conflict started... 

And there you go with your humanitarian aid package with clothes and food. It feels like a drop in the ocean, but babushka Katya is very grateful and gives us her last melon of the season. Besides the fact that I do not feel comfortable to accept this gift, it even upsets me more that I am not able to make a real difference here. Although, my chance to make a difference might be there in the classroom when I teach and implement other activities. Then, the new Ukrainian generation is sitting in front of me and hopefully during these classes I can create some awareness. This thought eases me a bit. And it is surely is a pity that my grandmother is no longer among us. I would have loved to tell her about my own experience in Ukraine.... 

The kick off in Severodonetsk

For the upcoming six months the city of Severodonetsk, located in eastern Ukraine, will be my hometown. It did not take long before it felt like home. At thirty kilometres distance from the frontline we do not notice much from the ongoing conflict. At first sight life just goes on: children go to school, the harvest from the dacha gardens is to be sold on every corner of the street by the babushka’s (grandmothers) and the stray dogs lay in the warm late summer sun.

But when you look a bit further and talk with random people it never takes long before they

start to mention the conflict that affects them all in some way. Take for example Svetlana, a women

I met on the market. She is an educated 65-year old pensioner, but needs to supplement her small

pension by selling second hand clothes from Europe. She lives together with her husband in

Severodonetsk. Her parents are buried in the occupied Luhansk, her daughter lives in the occupied

city of Donetsk. Before it would take Svetlana three and half hours to reach her daughter, now it

takes her about a whole day. It especially takes a long time to cross the border. With tempertures

in summer of +40 and in winter of -20 this is not an easy job. This story is not an exception.

The border which is dividing many families does simply not excist in the minds of the people.

Our activities for the organisation Vostok-SOS (East-SOS) mainly concern the victims of the

conflict. Before the conflict the organization was located in the now occupied city of Lugansk and
was mainly working on protection of children. After the outbreak of the conflict, there was no
other option then moving the office to the area under Ukrainian authority. Also the focus of the
organization changed: since then Vostok-SOS helps victims of the conflict – internally dislaced
people (IDP’s), but also people living close or on the frontline by offering humanitarian, legal and
psychological aid. Next to this in the Severodonetsk office events (that are open to everyone) are
organized to contribute to one’s education and development, but also to support contact between
IDP’s and local residents. And this is why I am here: to contribute to an extensive programme of
cultural, educational and social events by using my exerience as an event organizer.

I was lucky to arrive in a very exciting time as the annual Festival Mneniya (Opinion festival)

was going to take place. This festival, organized in cooperation with my Estonian sending
organization MTU Mondo, provides ground for sharing knowledge and discuss diverse topics.
There was a children’s playground where I provided a hedgehog workshop. It was great to see
that children in Ukraine get as excited about it as in the Netherlands. In no-time the books were
finished. For now many things are on the agenda, starting off with English conversation clubs, global
education on local schools and different childrens’ activities that I will write about in my next blog!

Training for the volunteers