#OneDay2014: the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation Collects Stories of Donbass Civilians

The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation continues to collect stories within the framework of its online project #OneDay2014. 
The goal of the project is to show that the beginning of the war is not just one day, but rather dozens or hundreds of different days. Hundreds of Ukrainians have shared their stories on social networks. Among them are famous TV presenters, journalists, and football stars.

One of those who shared her story is Iryna Nagorna from Mariupol. https://www.facebook.com/100001224486991/posts/4569569409760497/?d=n 

‘For me, this realization came on the morning of 25 August 2014. Feeling of fear mixed with anger. Back then, I was woken up by a call from a friend who was crying into the phone and said that her sister from Novoazovsk had just called her and said that there was a column of tanks coming from the border,’ says Iryna.

According to the woman, this information quickly reached Mariupol and panic began in the city.

‘On the outskirts of the city in the direction towards Zaporizhzhya, there were endless queues of cars. Shops and offices were closed, the basements of multi-storey buildings turned into bomb shelters. Many people began to leave the city in a hurry. At the family council, it was decided that we would not go anywhere! On 30 August, people lined up making a “living chain”. Then the whole world learned about Mariupol. The city did not surrender, but paid a high price... Now I know the true value of a peaceful sky and my great-grandmother’s words “the main thing is that there is no war,” says Iryna.

It is easy to become a participant of the project #OneDay2014. To do this, you need to publish your story, a recollection of the day when the war began in Donbass, adding the project’s hashtags: #OneDay2014, #CivilianVoices, #RinatAkhmetovFoundation. Some more details about the project are available in the video: https://youtu.be/DtpDp5iNupE

The project #OneDay2014 has become a part of the unique Museum of Civilian Voices.

‘The Foundation tells and will continue telling as many people in our country and the world as possible about the fates of Donbass residents. To that end, the Museum of Civilian Voices was created on the personal initiative of Rinat Akhmetov. This is an unprecedented documentary project. Its purpose is to tell the whole world about people whose lives the conflict in Donbass forever divided into “before” and “after”. This is the first source of true stories from eyewitnesses of hostilities in Donbass told in the first person by the own voices of those who have gone through the horrors of the armed conflict,’ said Iryna Blazhan, Project and Program Chief Director of the Foundation.

The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation also held a creative essay competition One Day for schoolchildren of 9-11 grades from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kharkiv regions. The number of stories collected within the framework of the competition and the online project totalled about 2,500 stories! The best of them will be included in the permanent exhibition or collection of the Museum of Civilian Voices.