Place
After February 24, 2022 the world has changed forever for most people in Ukraine and Russia.
This photo studio become the first volunteer place for Ukrainian refugees in this town. The center was working from 8 am to 8 pm every day for three months. The volunteers seek donations (clothes, food, work, apartments, etc) in local social media, web groups, and tirelessly sort out the donations. For this work, most of them have offered their free time, although most of them don’t have experience in volunteering. Around 15 000 refugees have arrived in Cyprus from Ukraine.
This is Yuliia from Bucha, Ukraine.
Yuliia is a professional landscape designer, an agronomist with three of the highest degrees in education and much rich experience. She left Kyiv at the beginning of the war. Now she is in Cyprus and is currently helping as a volunteer at the help center for Ukrainian refugees, organized by a Russian photographer in her own studio.
This is Angela.
Angela lives in Cyprus for a long time. Two of her sons live in Ukraine, both work in MES and cannot leave Ukraine (men must stay in the country as potential solders). Angela came to the center for some clothes for her old mother, her son’s wife, and granddaughter, who fled from Ukraine after the start of the hostilities.
Backstage, Olga in the focus.
Olga is 29 years old and is from the Zhytomyr region. A decorator by profession, until February 24 she worked as the head of a studio of arts and crafts for four years. She arrived in Cyprus in mid-April.
“It was the most difficult choice — from the whole family, only I could leave Ukraine. The night of February 24th will haunt me for the rest of my life. It was about 04:20 in the morning when I heard the first explosion. Then the second one. I thought the glass in the doors would fly out. We ran out into the street. It was still dark, something was burning in the distance, and the explosions did not stop. Mom turned on the TV. The president was live and declared martial law. From that moment the sleepless nights began. The TV worked all the time. Military alerts were constantly announced, sirens were heard every day, military planes were flying in the sky, rockets were flying over our house! Shots and explosions were heard in the distance, something was burning every night. We were on duty at night to wake the family in case of danger. The offensives and attacks were mostly at night. I often had to sleep in the shelter… I am grateful that my family and I don’t live in the epicenter of this. I left Ukraine, but my father and brother will not be allowed out of the country as this will be considered desertion. Mom won’t go anywhere without Dad. My dog Archie also stayed. Ukraine now is hell, long time of hell.”
Another portraits of Ukrainian refugees.
Given the conditions of standard office space, we must look for some non-standard ways to organize a volunteer help center. Those photos show the process of washing rubber shoes (which were brought and already sorted by volunteers) in the dishwasher.
Volunteers from Russia are afraid of publicity and are hiding their faces. For their aid to refugees from Ukraine, they fear persecution as many of them have close relatives in Russia.
Ps:
In June, the flow of refugees stopped, and on July 1, the center suspended its work. Volunteers hope that soon they will be able to close it completely and the studio will be just a photo studio again.