Human rights humanitarian mission completes first stage in Ukraine
Belarusian volunteers in the office of the Station Kharkov initiative together with their Ukrainian colleagues
For two and a half months, more than twenty Belarusian volunteers have helped the Station Kharkov initiative in receiving internally displaced persons from the conflict-hit areas in eastern Ukraine. The mission is expected to expand its activity to other Ukrainian cities.
“The most important thing that we have done is working for the IDPs with Station Kharkov; we have helped thousands of people. For us, it is an act of solidarity with them. It is note fair that in the 21st century people are forced to suffer from various problems because of war. They are forced to leave their homes, are experiencing difficulties in taking their relatives and children away from there. The main goal of our mission is to draw attention to the problems of internally displaced persons and to tell the people of Belarus accurate information. Our volunteers wrote down many stories of refugees and shared them on our Facebook page. This information is important for Belarus, because it is different from those stereotypes that appear in the Russian and Belarusian mass media,” said the coordinator of the Mission Dzmitry Salauyou.
Head of the Station Kharkov initiative Eva Hukalova praised the work of the Belarusian volunteers:
“From June to mid-August, Station Kharkov received outstanding guests - our Belarusian friends, volunteers and human rights defenders from the Viasna Center and the Belarusian Human Rights Humanitarian Mission in Ukraine. They helped on the hotline, conducted monitoring surveys, loaded and unloaded the cars, helped with transportation, advised, wrote articles, conducted interviews, they sang, danced and did a lot of things that were useful and important, not being above any work. Two months has passed so quickly, and now we already miss our new friends. We thank them for their help. Thank you for your support. We thank all those who made this mission possible. Looking forward to further cooperation. I wish you peace and freedom in your country! Long live Belarus!”
