Unsere russische Partnerorganisation, mit der wir seit vielen Jahren internationale Freiwilligendienste organisieren, hat uns geschrieben. Wir sind beeindruckt von ihrer Haltung angesichts des Einmarsches der russischen Armee in der Ukraine. Hier der Text der Email, aus Sicherheitsgründen ohne Namen.

Dear partners all over the world,

we are glad that our team is in contact with you. Last two weeks were terrible for us and our families, relatives and friends worldwide. The news from Ukraine has broken our hearts. We were waiting for any news from negotiations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. We hope for any better news now.

We hope we will continue to stay in contact with you, we try our best to keep the spirit of our volunteers abroad. Thank you for supporting and cooperating with them. We are glad that our international volunteers are at home safe and healthy. We had to say goodbye to each other after the first bad news about the sky getting closed for airplanes.

Nowadays is a tough time for us. To be honest, nobody from our families and friends support the situation with power, aggressiveness and punishments that we see on TV programs. Our values are love, support, trust, exchange of the best practice, facilitating and communication. We are broken, but we want to keep going if the government gives this opportunity for us – to continue running the international exchanges.

We don’t know how we can manage our work now. Are there any options from your side? Any online projects? We need any activities to run and show that our power is communication in society, we are alive, European people are open for communication and co-working, we need each other for improvement, not to follow the propaganda.

So 2021 was hard after COVID and its consequences. Now the new challenges for us. Hope to hear anything from you.