Translator and friend, Olga Mitronina has been with us since 2008.
Greetings, I am from Ukraine. In fact,we all here are kinda from Ukraine, some by nationality and passport, some by worldview and spirit.
I know the founders of the non-profit organisation Boudmo! since May 2008. I have been a translator for the artists who came to Ukraine to see, understand and speak about life after the tragedy of 1986. We met a lot of different people who lived near Tchernobyl, they are kind, unfortunate, talented, lonely but still unspeakably strong. French artists were discovering the Exclusion Zone, they discovered it for themselves and for the whole world, and they were always honest..
Yet, in January, I was thinking about how to combine my work and another trip to the Zone with French. And the war came in february. The North of Kyiv region, the district of Poliske was one of the first to be occupied by the russian army. More than a month - no news from there. More than a month - only guesses and hopes. The prayers have been heard, it is time now to help the people of the Chernobyl region. They are truly worth it: they did not surrender either to radiation or to the visible enemy.
And it's time to plant the potatoes, because, you know, potatoes are life.
Let's be honest: we need help. We need money for fuel, fertilisers, generators, seeds, medicines… A lot is needed. But the main thing the inhabitants of the region have is the will to live and the belief that nature / good always win.
Olga Mitronina