I have been organizing cultural activities together with
friends from Ukraine for many years. Currently, at their request, I
am raising money for walkie-talkies that will help them defend their
homes against Russian Federation aggression.
Cooperation with organizations from Ukraine for many years has been a crucial part of my social and professional activities.
In the Panorama of Cultures Association (Stowarzyszenie Panorama Kultur) together with friends from Ukraine since twenty years we were engaged in many cultural activities such as: traditional music, documentaries, oral history and cultural tourism.
Ten years ago I started the implementation of a project “Shtetl Routes”, which is a heritage interpretation platform and a cultural tourism trail in the footsteps of Jewish cultural heritage in smaller towns of Central and Eastern Europe, based in “Grodzka Gate - NN Theater” Center in Lublin (Poland). In 2019, Shtetl Routes joined the European Routes of Jewish Heritage, one of the Council of Europe’s certified Cultural Routes.
One of the main partners of the project, responsible for its realization in southwest Ukraine, was the Center for Social and Business Initiatives from Ukrainian town Yaremche. Together we were preparing routes in the footsteps of Jewish cultural heritage, across the borderlands of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus, collecting materials for guidebooks, organizing training activities for tour guides.
The war, caused by the aggression of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine, resulted in a necessity to change the cooperation profile.
On February 24 the Russian Federation armed invaded Ukraine. Admittedly, Shtetl Routes operates in the western part of Ukraine, which is an area distant from a front line, however Russian bombings and missile attacks affected, among others, Volodymyr and Chortkiv, which is a part of the Shtetl Routes, and also Lviv, Lutsk, Ivano-Frankivsk and Rivne which are a part of the area that the project is covering. The surrounding area of Delyatyn town, which lies on the Shtetl Routes, was attacked by a hyper-sonic missile Kinzhal.
Many of my Ukrainian friends, whom I knew as social activists, organizers of cultural events or ethnographers recording old musical traditions, took up arms and enrolled in the army and territorial defense.
Thanks to the help of many good people, we managed to acquire over a EUR 20 thousand to buy and hand over medical supplies and communication tools to our friends from defending Ukraine.
In the coming weeks we intend to buy and deliver to our partners from Ukraine another shipment of necessary professional radiotelephones. They are going to be used by local authorities and territorial defense in Ukraine. One radiotelephone costs about 500-700 euro.
If you can support financially this purpose, we encourage you to make a contribution.
Thank you in advance!
