I am the author of the Goodacity blog, a journalist, and a translator. For 16 years, I have worked in professional journalism, contributing to regional and national publications, both in print and online media. I have written reports, conducted interviews, reviews, articles on cultural, social, and charitable topics, as well as materials in the style of "solution journalism" and communication materials.
My focus is on creating interesting and exclusive content. Journalism, to me, is primarily about human stories, to which I always find the key, empathize with the people I write about, and love all my heroes. Journalism, to me, means telling people about what truly matters to them, informing and inspiring them. It is not just a job, but a way of life, just like for all those who dream, create, and are inspired by it.
So, if you are looking for stories that inspire and motivate, that instill faith and help find meaning while believing in goodness, read my stories on the Goodacity website.
I am a manager of cultural affairs and a project manager with over 14 years of experience at United Thinkers. I have participated in the organization of numerous successful social and charitable projects and have implemented informational campaigns and communication cases.
As a marketing manager, I have been involved in organizing marketing and sociological research, working with media and partners, developing advertising and marketing strategies, as well as planning and implementing advertising campaigns.
I believe in the power of goodness and I am happy that as part of the Goodacity project, I can contribute to its expansion. I believe in the power of words and in the fact that communication can help make the world a better place. I know how, where and when to speak in order to be heard. And when you are heard, you can change the world!
War couldn't take away their humanity or their ability to be happy!
Being happy – the story of a couple who lost their home but not hope or love!
Their story might remind you of fairy tale plots: “Once upon a time, there lived an old man and his wife; the old man wove baskets, and the old woman embroidered. They lived happily, accumulating goodness. But then, a dark army of war came upon them…”
But what happened next could not be imagined even in the darkest, most horrifying fairy tale… “I screamed, cried, prayed,” recalls Baba Shura. “Russian shells flew over our house – soaring and bursting, while we sat watching the windows crack, trees in the yard being knocked down, the shed collapsing.
By a miracle, we survived…” But this story is not about sorrow. On the contrary, it’s about what it means to be happy, despite all the hardships endured.
The Path to Happiness Lies in Love!
Being happy together for nearly six decades – that’s their story. Vasyl and Oleksandra Dubyn have been together for 58 years. In their hometown of Novoselivka, Ukraine, they are known primarily as skilled artisans – Baba Shura (as she is affectionately called in the village) embroidered, and Ded Vasyl wove baskets from willow. When their home, along with everything they had accumulated over the years, was destroyed, they worried not about their possessions but about their family photographs and their handcrafted items… A few surviving trees are all that remained of their homestead. Last spring, our troops dug in near their house – and despite the terrifying shelling and danger, the elderly couple found a way to bring fresh homemade food to the Ukrainian soldiers daily.
A year ago, when volunteers from Goodacity visited the couple, the request from Grandpa Vasyl that moved everyone was for just the essentials to make a living and… a dress for his wife! “Because my Sanechka is the most beautiful to me, and she must always be.” Being happy is, above all, about loving and caring for each other tenderly, even in the hardest times…
A year later, we visit the couple again. Grandpa Vasyl and Baba Shura live in an old family house in Kobylanka, Ukraine. To avoid reopening wounds with terrible memories, we talk about their crafts – for such a creative couple like them is rare to find!
“I just love this kind of work,” laughs Grandpa Vasyl, his eyes crinkling at the corners when we ask what prompted him to start weaving willow baskets. His path to happiness lies in engaging in his favorite activity.
“I’ve been weaving baskets since the fourth grade – my late uncle, my father’s brother, taught me. He spent his life doing this and passed his craft on to me. I was always by his side, watching how he weaved, and then I got the hang of it myself. I used to collect and prepare the willow – it’s not an easy task, there are secrets to it, it requires not only skill but also patience… Before I retired, I only wove for myself, but then I thought – why not make some extra money to add to my pension?
I set a goal to weave 100 baskets each winter, then get to work, and later sell them. Last February, I had woven 85 baskets, stored them in the shed – then “it hit,” and they all burned, nothing but ashes left… Eh, but it’s okay, I started weaving new ones…”
“We were shelled three times and buried,” Grandpa Vasyl shares about the horrifying events of spring 2022. How the war settled on their street and soon became their only neighbor – everyone else had left… How their Novoselivka, which became the last stronghold before Chernihiv, Ukraine, was shelled day and night, mercilessly destroyed…
“One of the guys stationed near us and often at our house – we always invited the boys over for a hot meal – told journalists about the hell that unfolded in Novoselivka after the occupiers were driven out, how he begged us to leave, and we didn’t listen, likely died… He didn’t know we had left the next day and assumed the worst… A journalist then visited us to make sure we were alive,” he laughs. “She says we’ll live a long time now. That’s the story… We’re living – thank God!
A year later, we’ve calmed down a bit, gotten used to it, but at first, it felt like we were in a dream – God forbid anyone should experience what we did. But why complain – people have faced even greater tragedies…
Everything we had accumulated – all gone, all burned. What we wore out of the house, that’s what we were left with. But, thanks to God and kind people, we’re not in need… Many in the villages around know us, so they helped, brought whatever they could, clothes, food, big thanks to everyone! We plant a little garden, and I go sell baskets by the roadside, and that’s how we live…”.
"Woven" Fashion
“I roam around for willow for my baskets: here in Kobylanka, by the riverbank where I cut and prepare it, and I also travel to Brusyliv and Voznesensk, Ukraine, in the neighborhood… I’m 83 years old, and I’m still not off my bicycle. But if it weren’t for my bicycle, I don’t know what I would do. When I was still working, I used to be in the hospital three times a year with radiculitis. The bicycle cured me. The bicycle is my friend, I even rode out of Novoselivka on it when everything was burning… The military evacuated my Shurochka, but I said I would go by myself – hopped on my bike and followed them…
Nowadays, I hang my baskets on the sides of the bike frame and ride with my goods to the stop by the highway. I take water with me, some simple snacks – I don’t need much, a newspaper to read, and that’s about it… I set up my wares, cars pass by, some stop and buy baskets, and thank the old man. That’s how it is. I even have what you might call ‘regular customers’ – sometimes they say: ‘We were passing by yesterday, looking for our grandfather with the baskets, wondering why we couldn’t see him…’ Everyone praises my baskets – it’s not me bragging, it’s the people praising,” he laughs. “People buy often: because it’s convenient, practical, beautiful, and healthy, not like that plastic… Nowadays, fashionistas walk through markets and stores with such woven baskets – it’s a true fashion for our own, Ukrainian, quality, folk stuff, finally making a comeback… And thank God, because we need to remember and honor our own. And Shurochka and I, as long as we can, will continue to create…”.
Life as an Embroidered Tapestry!
“What is happiness? It’s being together. ‘Fate brought us together,’ says Baba Shura about her husband. She says she fell in love with him not just for his talent but primarily for his kind soul and tender heart. ‘My Vasyl worked as a road worker, and I was a shop assistant,’ she shares about their simple life path. ‘I’ve been embroidering as long as I can remember,’ says Baba Shura. ‘Probably learned to embroider right after I learned to walk! At 15, I already had embroidered meter-long towels, and people I gifted them to still keep them. I crocheted so much clothing for myself, I was the village’s first fashionista,’ she laughs… ‘I embroidered both cross-stitch and satin stitch, but mostly cross-stitch. I still do it today – I buy patterns at the market and then create whole pictures with needle and thread. What colors, what patterns, the towels were so beautiful, and there were so many embroidered pictures at home, you couldn’t count them all! There were…’.
Tears well up in her eyes – all the embroidery burned in their destroyed home. ‘So many towels there were, so much work, so much soul! Our three children were born in that house – now only two of them are alive… But I don’t cry anymore – because why torture the soul, you know, I’ve started embroidering all over again – I pray to God to give me more years and health to finish everything… I even found and read up on eye exercises, now I do them daily – so my vision doesn’t fail me, because I have so much more to embroider!
When I embroider – it feels so good, you have no idea! I calm down, forget about all the sorrows and problems, for me, it’s the best medicine, a consolation for the soul! I never tire from embroidery, on the contrary, it gives me strength, heals, inspires me to live! I embroider for my grandchildren – looking at them, I understand what happiness is!
Throughout my life, as much as I’ve embroidered, I never sold a single piece – I’ve only gifted them to people. And why do I gift? Because I love!
I love nature, I love the river, I love all living things around me, and I love people – mainly, if they’re sincere! That’s the kind of romantic I am,’ she laughs. ‘Yes, in life, like on a long field – there’s been all sorts, both good and hard… Like in embroidery, ‘red for love’ and ‘black for sorrow’ have interwoven. But that’s what makes our Ukrainian embroidery beautiful, all colors are interwoven, and in human life, too, the sad and the joyful are often side by side… I prefer not to dwell on the sad – and that’s where embroidery helps me. They say if a person creates beauty, then they will find it everywhere. That’s what I do…’.
Their story somewhat resembles fairy tale plots: ‘Once lived an old man and his wife, he wove baskets, she embroidered…’. And I would very much like their story to have that fairy-tale happy ending – with a rebuilt house and happy photos beside it. But life’s stories don’t always turn out like in a fairy tale… The house in Novoselivka stands as a ruin, Grandpa Vasyl and Baba Shura live in half of an old, parental house in Kobylanka. But, despite everything, they know what it is to be happy.
‘We’re happy we remained alive,’ says Grandpa Vasyl. ‘And most importantly, that we have each other!’.
When there’s no home, you seek shelter in people. When there are no walls, you look for a shoulder…
In their cozy home, there was always so much love, warmth, and care. The home is no more – but the care and love remain. And they endure.
