Ukraine
“Who gives in need, gives double”
– Ukrainian proverb
You may have seen this travel quote before: “We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us”. But some people travel vast distances to simply escape. To survive.
When we were working in Zambia, we would go out on ‘monitoring trips’ each semester. Our student teachers would spend one year with us in lectures at the teacher training college. In the second year of their diploma, we would go out into the field to observe their lessons and mentor them.
Our monitoring trips became a highlight for us, a chance to head off in the college’s Land Cruiser, give our student teachers practical support and see so much more of the country.
All of the schools where we visited our trainee teachers were in rural settings. Some were many kilometres off road, into the bush.
It was on one of these trips, somewhere far from Kasempa, in Zambia’s North Western Province, that we stumbled across a woman seeking asylum.
The college driver, Gilbert, spotted the white woman walking by the dusty road. “Is she a friend of yours?” he asked. I told him that I didn’t know her but suggested that perhaps we could stop and ask her if she would like a lift.
And that’s what we did.
The woman gratefully accepted the offer of a ride and she climbed up into the Land Cruiser, with her young daughter behind her. We continued on our journey for many kilometres, back towards Kasempa.
And we began to talk.
The woman told me that she was Zimbabwean. She used to have a farm in Zimbabwe with her husband. When Zanu PF supporters invaded her farm, they gunned down her husband in front of her. Her daughter was hiding. The first chance that they got, the two of them ran for their lives, leaving everything behind. She told me that she had walked from Zimbabwe, for many, many kilometres, and across the border into Zambia. She was going from province to province, asking the local chiefs for a small piece of land where she could start over and re-build her life in safety. Her journey had brought her this far.
The woman introduced me to her daughter. She told me that it was her birthday. She was nine years old.
I asked her where she was heading. She told me that she was going to Kasempa to find the chief. We knew Chief Mumena. I asked Gilbert to drop the woman at the chief’s village.
When we reached, the woman thanked Gilbert for the lift and we said goodbye. I quickly reached into my day-rucksack, fumbling for something that might pass as a birthday gift. I found an apple and presented it to the girl. “Happy birthday”. The small girl shot me a smile and waved goodbye.
That day has never left me. Hearing her harrowing story of witnessing her husband’s death and having to flee her country to survive was horrific. And of course it has been the harsh reality for so many people. Too many.
And so my thoughts turn to Ukraine. Like many people everywhere we’ve been watching with dis-belief as events have unfolded and more and more innocent people are killed or displaced. The UN has said that more than one million people have fled from Ukraine.
Without doubt the people of Ukraine need help. Links to NGOs and charities that are providing practical support are shared here.
https://donate.unhcr.org/int/en/ukraine-emergency
https://donate.chooselove.org/campaigns/ukraine-appeal
https://www.icrc.org/en/where-we-work/europe-central-asia/ukraine
Please help where you can.
Or share information below, of any other organisations who would welcome donations.
Images by Pádraig Downey
© Maggie M / Mother City Time