The project is dedicated to the aged, their dimly lit apartments, lace curtains, and time-worn walls. To how often we don’t notice an elderly person living nearby: an old lady. Probably, you haven’t even seen her leaving the apartment. These people don’t go outside. They cannot do it by themselves. A room is their little world in which nothing has changed for the past forty years, or even more.

The heroes of my project have almost reached the century mark. Some of them have outlived their children. Their life stories lend themselves to being turned into a Hollywood movie. 

Volodymyr was orphaned at the age of nine. The man spent time in three correctional facilities, changed eleven schools, but became an artist and an honorary citizen of Vyshhorod.

 

You each went outside today. Getting dressed, bending forward to put on shoes, going down the stairs, stopping in at the supermarket to buy some tea treats have become commonplace for you. However, for about two hundred residents of our town the street and fresh air, especially in winter, are unreachable. 

The Loneliness. The sound of silence day after day for years. All these people live alone for decades. During the shooting, I asked everyone what they dream of, and I was shocked by their answers. To fall asleep and no longer wake up is what my heroes want. Only Antonina told me she’d like good people to come over at times.

The horror of helplessness, hopelessness, and total loneliness left me speechless for a while. Even having relatives, these people need support. Employees and volunteers of the Red Cross of Vyshhorod currently take care of the elderly people delivering them sack lunches, ensuring they follow their treatment plans, and simply communicating with them.

 

However, since January 2020, with revisions made to the Budget Code of Ukraine, it is forbidden to finance the Red Cross organization using local budgets according to the Article on wages and utilities. Furthermore, on February 28, the lease agreement expires. And now, the Red Cross staff as well as local government representatives are doing their best to keep the organization in the town. 

Throughout the world, public authorities support the International Committee of the Red Cross, and I truly hope that this project will remind our authorities of the need to support the Ukrainian Red Cross.