Help Viktoriia Savchenko, a refugee from Kyiv

Hi, my name is Peter and I'm fundraising for Viktoriia Savchenko who is now a refugee, having had to flee her home in Kyiv in Ukraine because of the Russian invasion. Viktoriia is a lady of 63, a keen amateur photographer, and so much of what we have learned about the atrocities of the Russian military and the bravery of the Ukrainians has been through the power of photography.

 

Like me, Viktoriia is active on a photo contest site called Photocrowd and if you'd like to see some of her work click the link below.

 

https://www.photocrowd.com/photographer-community/184659/

 

With the worsening situation in the capital she has had to flee from Kyiv - her message to me is below:

 

Hi, Peter! I'm sorry for my silence. I had a long way from Kyiv to Warsaw (through Slovakia and Czech Republic). I'm safe right now, in the family of my friends. I needed to leave Kyiv, because it was very dangerous to be there. Besides bombs and vessels, Russian tanks have broken the protective layer of Chernobyl Station. The radiation level is exceeded in 7 times in Kyiv now. So, my daughter said to leave Kyiv. So, I'm a refugee now. I left my camera and all photo equipment, my flat, all my previous life...

 

I can hardly imagine having to leave my home with few possessions - everything else had to be left and that included her Canon camera and photo equipment. She has no idea whether her flat will be bombed or looted or whether she can ever return. She is now staying with the family of friends in Warsaw in Poland. Her daughter Daria lives in Richmond, Virginia, USA and Viktoriia hopes to join her once she has had a further Covid vaccination.

 

I know many of us are contributing to Ukrainian appeals but I wanted to do something personally for Viktoriia and I thought that a fundraiser to at least replace her camera and photo equipment would be something that would be a nice gesture, even though she has had to leave most of her other possessions behind.

 

If you are able to help please do - any small donation would be welcome and will help this brave lady begin to rebuild her life again. If you feel like sharing this link with other people via social media like Facebook then that would be amazing! 

Thank you for reading, 

Peter

 

Slava Ukrayini