“I see my mission as helping people.” The story of a teenager from Chernihiv region who helped people during and after the occupation
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Ivan Tereshchenko is a first-year student at the University of Chernihiv region, he dreams of becoming a social worker and helping people.
During the full-scale invasion, Ivan actively volunteered and helped the residents of his hometown of Snovsk, where he is from.
And now the boy is part of the youth team, which takes care of making up for educational losses.
Ivan talks about his experience of the occupation and helping the residents of Snovsk in a special project of the UP “Victory Generation”, dedicated to children from the de-occupied territories.
The project was initiated by the GoGlobal educational foundation, which generates, pilots and scales projects for teachers, schoolchildren and young people.
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Snovsk is a small town in the Chernihiv region with a long history. Before the full-scale invasion, the population of the city was about 10 thousand people.
“Snovsk is a calm, slow and quiet place, we have the cleanest river in Europe, Snov, here. All the residents of our town are proud of this! When you drink water from the tap and feel this taste, you are happy. It is incomparable to anything else! “ – this is how Ivan Tereshchenko talks about his hometown.
Ivan is in his first year of university and dreams of being a social worker. Passion for this profession began about two years ago, when the Russian invaders passed by the city of Snovsk, cutting the city off from communication with the rest of the country, and Ivan became a volunteer.
| Ivan Tereshchenko. Photo: Sasha Maslov |
The beginning of the invasion
The Snov community of Chernihiv region is a border community. This community is “lucky” to live next door to both Russia and Belarus. Therefore, from the very first days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Snovsk was under fire.
Enemy equipment and columns of occupiers passed here. The once cozy border villages turned into a dangerous territory: shelling and explosions took place daily.
“We were, one might say, “cut off” from central Ukraine, Ivan recalls. – Formally, we were not under occupation, but the occupiers passed us by and we ended up behind them, cut off, we had no connection with other Ukrainian cities, with Kyiv.”
There were interruptions with food and water.
“We managed to survive only thanks to the fact that there are many villages around our community and all of them have farms and their own products. The farmers helped!” – says the guy.
The beginning of volunteering
“A few months before the full-scale invasion, I became an intern at the Youth Council, – says the young man. – It was a responsible position for me, I wanted to prove myself. And that’s why when the head of the Youth Council, Olya, started volunteering, I was one of the first to come to her and asked how I could help.”
At first, the boy and his friends simply unloaded the humanitarian truck: food, diapers, medicine, the most necessary. Then Ivan joined the handout – they were looking for people who really needed help.
“A few months after the beginning of the invasion, people from other regions began to come to us – temporarily displaced persons. Yes, people also “arrived” in Snovsk, but compared to other regions, the same Chernihiv, it was quieter here.” Ivan recalls.
People arrived with absolutely nothing – just in jackets, without even suitcases.
“I still remember the moment when, in the first two weeks, a family came to us, where there were two little girls, about 5 years old, Varya and Lesya.
I saw children’s eyes: girls to whom we gave toys – for them it was a real miracle. At that moment, I realized that I was very inspired to help people and began to think about getting a profession as a social worker.” – says the guy.
Career choices
“I see my mission as helping people. A social worker is a person who comes to the aid of other people, but makes it so that they can cope on their own.
HI want to be a specialist in this field, but I also do not rule out that I will try other classes, because I am interested in many things” – Ivan shares.
Ivan and his friends are now implementing a project on the basis of the city initiatives agency, where his team won funding and is now able to implement their initiative thanks to this.
“Our team is called the Dream Team– says the young man, – and we are working on the “Education 2.0” project. Our goal is to make up for educational losses, non-formal education. We want to pay attention to extracurricular education, the newest professions, especially in the creative field!
As part of this project, the team plans to conduct trainings and education in media literacy and leadership in the modern world.
The #ПоколенияПеремогы project was created in video, photo and text format. Famous photographer Sasha Maslov worked on photo stories of teenagers, whose works are regularly published by publications such as The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Newyorker, Guardian, Wall Street Journal Magazine and others. His lens captured not only touching moments, but also the power that pulsates in the heart of every child talent
Text: Yana Altukhova
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