(Newswire.net — December 16, 2022) — In a recent interview discussing the ongoing war, philanthropist and entrepreneur Rinat Akhmetov expressed how no one can be allowed to forget the atrocities that have befallen the Ukrainian people at the hands of Russian occupiers.
“I am sure that the time will come when we will rebuild Ukraine, and I will invest all my strength and funds for Ukraine to recover and become a strong and prosperous country. Years will pass and historians will try to rethink everything we lived through, leaving only dates and replacing the fates of thousands of people with the names of settlements,” Akhmetov said.
The Week of Civilians
The upcoming Week of Civilians event will be “rich in events,” according to the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation website.
In Dnipro, Vinnytsia, and Cherkasy, for example, the Museum of Civilian Voices will present a performance called “Faces of the Colour of War.” Based on actual events, it will illustrate the lives of people in the now-occupied port city of Mariupol. Spectators will learn more about the museum and hear the experiences of civilians embroiled in the devastation of war.
The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation will also sign a memorandum of cooperation between the Museum of Civilian Voices and the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. The foundation will work with universities in Ukraine and other countries to develop and deepen the accumulated knowledge and experience at the level of public education systems. “The foundation plans to draw the attention of the scientific community, state agencies, media, and society to the scientific methodology for documenting and disseminating the evidence of the war, as well as preserving the national memory of Ukraine,” says the foundation’s official website.
In addition, the foundation will host an All-Ukrainian Essay Competition, involving school children in grades 9-11 covering the topic “War in the Fate of My Family.” Journalist Oleksiy Sukhanov, ambassador of the Museum of Civilian Voices, will share his knowledge of how to write essays and life stories with the students.
An Important Cultural Project
By implementing these activities, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation hopes to create a cultural project in Ukraine and at an international level. The foundation also aims to develop a methodology for documenting and disseminating evidence of the war for society, state agencies, and the media in partnership with the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
Finally, as part of the event, schoolchildren will be taught how to present their life stories in essay format in a bid to support their psychological well-being, and public opinion leaders will be invited to participate in the preservation of the historical and national memory of Ukraine by telling their stories to the Museum of Civilian Voices.
What is the Museum of Civilian Voices?
The Museum of Civilian Voices, founded in 2014, is a project of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation that collects and shares the stories of Ukrainian civilians about their experiences during the war. The foundation began to collect stories from civilians living in Donbas after it launched its Here to Help Humanitarian Centre eight years ago, and the museum has been growing ever since.
The museum’s stories provide a detailed insight into the impact of the invasion of Ukraine through various media including interviews, pictures, and videos that document the tragedies, report on the circumstances, and amplify the personal impact of the ongoing war. The museum’s primary goal is to become a trusted source of information, and Akhmetov hopes to guarantee that not a single story remains untold. “It is important to preserve the memory of the past and the present for a peaceful, better future for Ukraine,” reads the foundation’s website.
The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s work is a representation of the lengths that Akhmetov is willing to go to help save his country. “I am in Ukraine, and I am not going to leave the country,” he told Forbes Ukraine in an interview earlier this year. “I share the same feelings with all Ukrainians: I am sincerely waiting for the victory of Ukraine in this war. And we will start to rebuild the country to make it happier and more prosperous. On my end, I will spare no expense or effort to achieve this goal.”