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The workers of 10 combines individuals who have fled Ukraine in current weeks with those that have been residing overseas for years. Regardless of who they’re, their frequent objective is to assist fellow Ukrainians and their homeland dealing with the brutal Russian invasion.
Natalia Churikova, an skilled journalist with Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty stated she couldn’t say no to a suggestion to grow to be the broadcaster’s editor-in-chief.
“It was for my individuals, for individuals who actually wanted assist, who actually wanted help, one thing that will assist them begin a brand new stay or restart their lives right here after they’ve lived by way of very unhealthy issues attempting to flee from Ukraine,” Churikova stated.
Staffer Sofia Tatomyr is a kind of who left to flee the conflict.
The 22-year-old from the western city of Kalush was planning to maneuver to a different metropolis in Ukraine when a pal known as one morning: “Sofia, the conflict has simply begun.”
Her mother and father and older brother opted to remain dwelling, however they wished her to hitch her aunt in Prague.
“It occurred rapidly,” she stated. She boarded a bus alone in Cherniutsi and arrived 28 hours later within the Czech capital, a metropolis she’d by no means visited.
“Once I was already overseas, I bear in mind the second that I used to be crying and I used to be attempting to purchase a ticket and I couldn’t spell what ticket I would like. It was actually troublesome,” she stated.
Tatomyr labored as graphic designer and singer in Ukraine after getting a level as a writer and media editor. Radio broadcasting was a part of her programs on the college. To her shock, her aunt’s brother discovered an announcement about jobs for a brand new Ukrainian radio station.
She stated she wanted “a while to know that not everyone might be on the frontline on the conflict and everyone has to do what she or he can do one of the best.”
“So that is how I’m cheering myself up that I’m doing my career, that I’m doing what I can do one of the best, and that is one of the simplest ways I can assist our individuals, I can assist Ukraine. That is how I’m interested by it,“ she stated.
Secure in Prague, she was nonetheless attempting to come back to phrases with the invasion of her homeland.
“It’s horrible,” she stated. “I can’t nonetheless discover any logical rationalization for what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. Within the twenty first century, a conflict? Why? We have been a peaceable nation residing simply our lives.”
One other announcer, Marharyta Golobrodska, was working as a copywriter for a software program firm when she obtained a name from Churikova, whom she knew from an internship at Radio Free Europe.
“I used to think about those that stand up early to be able to work from 6 a.m. loopy, however that’s what I do now and I totally get pleasure from it,” Golobrodska stated. “That’s what I all the time wished to do, to be useful for my nation, though I stay so far-off.”
For 12 hours every weekday — and 11 hours on weekends — Radio Ukraine performs Ukrainian and western music whereas presenting information of Ukraine and the Czech Republic along with info for refugees each quarter-hour. It contains particulars about the place they will get the paperwork they want from native authorities, the best way to get a job or medical remedy, or the best way to discover a place for kids at faculties. Youngsters can hearken to Ukrainian fairy tales.
A local of the southern metropolis of Mykolaiv, Golobrodska has lived within the Czech Republic for eight-and-a-half years. After the invasion, she traveled to western Ukraine to fulfill her mom and 9-year-old sister and drive them to security. In Prague, she bought them concerned in her broadcast.
“My mum, for instance, advised me she’d like to listen to what she’s not alleged to do right here. For instance, that she will be able to’t park the automotive wherever she needs to love in Ukraine,” she stated.
Bohemia Media, which operates a number of radio stations within the Czech Republic, got here up with the concept to launch the station. It offered a studio and its individuals cooperated with the Ukrainian embassy, the native Ukrainian group and others to make it actuality in three weeks. It additionally covers the salaries.
Lukas Nadvornik, the proprietor of the Mediapark, an organization that represents Bohemia Media, stated the plan is for the station to stay on air so long as it’s wanted. The important thing process for now’s to let know as many potential listeners as doable about its existence.
One in every of them is Sophia Medvedeva. The 23-year outdated internet designer couldn’t maintain again tears as she talked in regards to the current six-day drive together with her mom and youthful brother from Mykolaiv to Krakow, Poland.
However in Prague, she joined her fiancé and Radio Ukraine helped her adapt to a brand new life.
“I’m so amazed in regards to the probability to hearken to Ukrainian music after I’m not in my homeland. I really feel that I’m not alone,” she stated. Her solely suggestion for it’s to ask a psychologist to “advise the Ukrainian refugees about the best way to struggle the survivor syndrome and the best way to struggle melancholy.”
Observe the AP’s protection of the conflict at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
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