Supporting self-settlers and villages around the Zone.

Our trips to the self-settlers did not stop even when we stopped keeping a chronicle of them.

Valentyna Borysivna lived in the town of Chornobyl. We stopped by with tourists: she needed someone to talk to, and the guests left money that helped her keep living in Chornobyl. She played the songs of her youth on the bayan accordion, and her little dog Dana danced to the music. The bayan is heavy, so Valentyna Borysivna asked the tourists to help her put it on. They marveled at how skillfully the elderly woman played and were glad she shared her music and memories with them.

Once she said that in her whole life she had never been anywhere. She lived in Chornobyl, was evacuated nearby, then came back. She never had the chance to travel. But now people come to her from all over the world, and she feels that in her old age she has seen the whole world, with all its cultures and traditions.

After 2022 our routes grew to include the villages around the Zone that had lived through the occupation. Together with Acted and Synergy we delivered parcels and hot meals to elderly people, people with disabilities and large families in Orane, Prybirsk, Makarivka and other villages of the Ivankiv area. The lists were drawn up by local volunteers together with the village council. People who had sat out the occupation in their own homes welcomed us like family.