“I want to attract more funds to solve the problems of our village.” The story of a teenager who survived the occupation in Chernihiv Oblast

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Zhenya Bober, an 11th-grade student at a school in the de-occupied village of Mykhailo-Kotsyubynske (Chernihiv region).

The boy is a social activist, together with his team he created a project and won funds that he spent on a gym at the school. Takes care of the well-being of the village, dreams of rebuilding the school.

Zhenya talks about her experience of the occupation and helping the community in the special project of UP Life “Generation of Victory”, 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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Upon entering the village of Mykhailo-Kotsyubynske, you are greeted by a pastoral picture: clean houses, apple and cherry trees, dogs greet you with cheerful barking.

Almost nothing here reminds of the war until you reach the village school. Half of the building was destroyed by Russian rockets, but schoolchildren still come here every day to study, and teachers to teach.

And this school has a cool gym!

This gym is a project that Zhenya Bober, a public activist and student of the same school, is proud of.

Zhenya Bober. Photo: Sasha Maslov

Sports hall: a project for the community

“It all started with the first wave of UActive (a civic education program for young people). To participate in the program, it was necessary to submit a project that would improve the life of our community.” – says Yevhen.

He says that there were many ideas, but the boy and his team stopped at the sports field.

“Firstly, we have a lot of active young people who play sports. Secondly, there was an “arrival” in the village, and the only place where we could do sports – a sports field near the school – was destroyed. Therefore, we did not hesitate for a long time: we you need a comfortable gym where you can work out regardless of the weather!” – explains the boy.

Schoolchildren prepared a project and won $5,000 for its implementation.

Zhenya and his team created a free gym, which became very popular among the residents of Mykhailo-Kotsyubinsky: not only young people, but also the older generation go here.

About inspiration

“When the gym started working, I realized how nice it is to do something for people, – says Eugene, – because people started writing to me and sharing their sports successes. And I am especially inspired by a man who is somewhere around 60 years old: he comes to us almost every day, keeps himself in great shape, teaches young people to play sports!”

Zhenya also very romantically describes life in Mykhailo-Kotsyubinsky, with love for every corner. It is really calm and very quiet. But this perfect silence disappeared with the onset of a full-scale invasion.

Occupation

Zhenya remembers the first hours of the war with horror:

“I felt like I was in a movie: I felt cold on my skin, it was scary, I didn’t know what to do. And at that moment, enemy tanks and enemy equipment were driving outside the window. It was impossible to do anything, it was dangerous to go outside. I just lay there and waited for will continue: without light, without communication and without hope…”

During the first three days of the war, many residents of the village of Mykhailo-Kotsyubynske, like Yevhen’s family, lived in basements, because they did not know what to expect from the aggressor. It was impossible to leave, the village was immediately under occupation.

“We saw all the shelling of Chernigov, many “flew” into the village as well. – says the teenager, – lived in the basement, but later gradually began to return to their homes and try to live on.”

There was not enough food, products, and water in the village: at some point, the family began to bake bread from corn, because they ran out of flour.

“But people actively helped each other and shared everything: for example, farmers gave out vegetables and meat just like that. In my opinion, if the occupation had lasted another couple of weeks, famine would have started in the village.”– remembers Yevhen.

Life after occupation

“After the occupation, there was an extraordinary rise, – says the guy, – I remember when the occupiers left, my first thought was: will we finally be able to buy groceries, eat properly and leave the house?!”

After the occupation, the restoration of life and the launch of the gym, Yevgeny decided to continue public activity. He created the youth organization “Vereb”, which all willing school students and young people can join.

The “Vereb” team sets many ambitious goals, for example, to create a class for 3D modeling in a rural school. The budget of the project is about 25 thousand dollars, and the teenagers have already received the first grant for it!

“We apply for grants from our NGO and participate in various competitions, – says the young man, – I want to attract more funds to solve the problems of our village, to make life here better. We need to improve our education, and I also dream of creating a green zone in Mykhailo-Kotsyubinsky!”

After the occupation, the school that was hit by a Russian rocket resumed work. Students come here and hold classes here every day, despite the fact that half of the building is destroyed. Thanks to public organizations and caring people, the broken part of the school is being restored little by little.

Zhenya dreams of continuing to be useful to her fellow villagers:

“Now many young people see prospects as far as possible from their homes, but I see prospects here and now, I want to give birth to important things here and now.

I have no plans to go anywhere, I have things to do here and I have to help my people.”

The #ПоколенияПеремогы project was created in video, photo and text format. The photo exhibition can be seen in the center of Kyiv (Gulliver shopping center, 2nd floor) from December 14. 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

#ПоколеннияПеремогы

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