Anna Goes Ukraine

10 April 2023

Anna Bowles is a pro-Ukrainian activist from the UK, and from 23 March to 6 April she is in East and South Ukraine, with her friends from the Freefilmers NGO, interviewing local people – especially women in rural communities – about their experiences and survival strategies. Anna is blogging about her trip here – we are also republishing some of her blogs on Rights in Russia, but please also visit Anna’s site. You can donate here to support the people Anna meets.

The Party!

Happy endings are hard to come by, but sometimes it’s possible to have happy midpoints. Pitchka Fund’s adolescents have been extracted from Russia and the occupied territories (with varying degrees of assistance from us), it was Maria and Denys’ last week in Kyiv and I was in town, so… zamotka party at Maria’s!

A zamotka is a Mariupol custom: a creative variation on the wrap. You arrange your food artistically before rolling it up and eating it.

That is my first-ever zamotka. I know, I know. I got a D in GCSE Art.

Above: the artist-activists, and the soldier. Would you trust these people with the future of your country? Well, they seem to be doing a pretty good job with Ukraine. The shiny objects they are showing off are chainmail necklaces/lanyards made by my husband.

Below: safe(ish) in Ukraine and full of smotki (clockwise starting with Maria):

1. Not-your-mum, 2 The artist, 3 The musician, 4-5 The cute couple, 6 Not-your-dad, 7 The Shy One, 8 The bemused foreign auntie, 9 The feline overlord.

Please consider donating to my ongoing fundraiser for rural women and their communities here.

NB Anna’s fundraising is not connected in any way to Rights in Russia