Ukraine Russian war had broken out and we felt helpless to make a difference, yet in this digital age we wanted to ensure that we could at least help. Humanising the digital age for TAG means making uncomfortable connections, telling hard stories and transforming lives whether it be through the programs we teach, our free podcasts, our articles, counselling, couple or individual, our work in community groups or who we work with. We are curious about others and their stories in the hope that we can step back from our screens and experience the human behind it. We want to humanise the digital age!
This is a story of the human spirit, courage, survival and generosity of spirit.
Our homepage art was designed by Oleksii Skrypnyk (Alex) is a Ukrainian designer who designed this in the midst of war in Kyiv with intermittent electricity in the middle of winter, rationed water, continual bombings, family members becoming refugees and limited supplies. He would have to work on the piece when electricity was available, continually created updates whilst juggling lack of supplies, devilries cut whilst generously offering on the ground insights so that we had some glimpse aside from the media of what was happening. Always in good cheer!
Oleskii’s Story told by him:
“Situation with electricity is still the same, so my ‘business hours’ are literally ‘hours when I have electricity’, he-he 🙂
On top of that we have quite massive snowfalls here, especially considering that it’s a mid of November, not even winter. And usually I love snow and cold weather, but I don’t have heating without electricity, and I have some serious frights regarding this. Last few winters were not too cold, but sometimes it can be like -15 and even -20 (rarely) so without the heating situation will be really hard. On top of that authorities say that people should move to other countries at least for the winter months, and that’s a nice idea, but due to war they banned the right to cross the border for all the males from 18 to 60 y.o. And this looks like they are kidding… But I hope that situation will be solved somehow 🙂”
After A Time
“Yeah, I’m ok. More air defense systems were delivered and the russia already used majority of their missiles and long range drones, so we have something happening like once per 1-2 weeks or something. It’s terrible of course, but compared to what we had just 5 months ago this looks optimistic. However sometimes tragedies happen, for example this one https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/04/28/7399781/ A Russian missile has hit a residential building in Uman, Cherkasy Oblast, killing seven people, including a child, and injuring 17 more.
That happened in a small town in the central part of the country. That town is mainly known because of the large national park and because some prayers from Israel are getting there each year as there is a grave of their saint (not sure, however that’s religion-related tourism). There are no miltary objects or something, so that was a pure act of terror against civilians 😞
But in Kyiv, where I live, it’s more or less fine. Weather became better, flowers and tress are in bloom, sights becoeing more pleasant so these things are helping to distract attention from the war. Plus we have a land plot with a garden near Kyiv, I’m trying to make some works and make it very cosy before my mom will return back, she is now a refugee and I would like to make some nice things for her when she will come back 🙂”
LATER
“Yeah, my mom is back, now trying to find out what’s going on and what to do when air strike alerts is on. But in general she is ok.
Situation here is same as earlier, but on top of this we have more worries russians will make explosion at the nuclear power plant, and I believe these rumors can be realistic, so I’m trying to be ready for this scenario”
If you would like to meet Alex and enjoy his work go to: https://www.instagram.com/alex_2loud/ or https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~0144d54999332fc25b
