What you just read is not a movie script. This is just one real experience of the war in Ukraine, told to me by the woman who lived it.
Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine in 2014, I have been part of a group of activists, which we have chosen not to name, who help women affected by the war – via humanitarian aid, evacuation to a safe area, legal, psychological and medical assistance.
Since Russia began its full-scale invasion on 24 February, the geographical spread of our work has expanded. Women from Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions have joined. The conflict has stretched across almost the entire country, but we have focused on these areas in the south and east, as many women activists found themselves in territory outside of Ukrainian government control.
To find women who need help, we use our connections. Over long years of work in Ukraine’s voluntary sector, we have gained a reputation that makes it possible to receive information from the occupied territories – and to work there.
We all understand that even when this war stops, we, Ukrainian women, will continue to live with all of this.
Unfinished stories
As we distribute humanitarian aid in villages and small towns, we hear tragic, true stories from women who are in trouble.
We first met the woman whose story is told above when a team of activists from our group brought aid to a small town. A resident approached us and asked for painkillers for a severe headache for a distant relative, who she was sheltering.
The relative had come from a town that had, until recently, experienced heavy fighting and occupation. This woman was silent all the time and could not sleep due to a severe headache. We visited their home, and the women fell asleep after taking some painkillers.
As it turned out, we had to stay in their home: there was fighting along the route out, and then curfew began. It was because of this that we learned the woman’s story and were able to provide further assistance, such as an evacuation and psychological help, correctly and quickly.
This woman woke up a few hours later. We’re used to asking women the same first question: do you have children? (In wartime, you get used to asking questions quickly and to the point.) She told us her story.
She was the first person I saw that a psychologist could not help, and after evacuation she was immediately put on medication. She could not finish the course of treatment in Ukraine. As the fighting continued, she had to go from one city to the next on her evacuation route, before our group of Ukrainian activists helped her leave for a neighbouring country.
There are hundreds of stories like hers, and each of them is not finished yet.
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