Everyone is more or less willing to take care of their own home, to create a cozy environment to live in. Such a possibility has been denied to millions of Ukrainians after the annexation of Crimea and the start of Donbas war. Some IDPs have found their symbolic house they can take care of in the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine at the village of Pyrohiv near Kyiv. Moreover, it turned out that the exhibit of Donetsk house needs attention.
Past year, activists of the Donetsk regional branch of Ukraine’s Committee of Voters took patronage over the house, which had been taken to the museum from the village of Olkhovchyk. This house is a part of the exhibition entitled “The Socialist Village,” which presents 20th-century houses from every region of Ukraine. By the way, Olkhovchyk later became part of the city Shakhtarsk in the east of Donetsk oblast, which has been occupied by DNR militants since April 2014.
“A member of our team had once visited the museum and saw the dilapidated condition of this house, and thus we had an idea to bring it back to shape. We arranged with the museum’s management to come there for one day of volunteer work, and had the first such day past summer,” says Kateryna Zhemchuzhnykova, representative of the Committee’s Donetsk branch. “The management of the museum has reacted to our initiative very positively. In fact, there is a tradition in the museum: every house in the exhibition is taken care of by a fraternity from that particular region. Several of such local associations are inactive in Kyiv, and some of the houses were left without proper care – the Donetsk one was one of them.”
Now the house from Donetsk is neat and tidy: it has whitewashed walls and fresh blue paint on the windows; weeds have been rooted out and replaced with flowers and young trees. Back in the summer, when the activists came to the house for the first time, the plaster on the walls was covered in cracks and holes. It was not enough just to paint the windows, so a fundraiser was organized to rescue the building, which raised a little more than eight thousand hryvnias. Generally, the money was donated by members of the Donetsk branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, and by activists of Donbas SOS. The money had allowed hiring workers, who completely renovated the facade of the building.
Donetsk activists visit the house several times a year, usually in summer. This year they also held a friendly gathering to plant trees in September. Zhemchuzhnykova says: “We will continue to periodically visit the museum, check the state of our house. When the time comes to refresh the paint on windows and doors – we will do that. We will see for the trees to root in properly. We are going to maintain and develop our initiative.”
The loss of control over the part of Donetsk oblast leads to decline of the area, say members of the Committee of Voters. And it’s hard to argue. Taking care of the house from Olkhovchyk, the activists dream of rebuilding Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts – and their faith in their work and love for their own home is encouraging.
