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!
THE PATH OF THE MESSENGER OF GOOD
Andrii Halyuha
They are already well-known in Chernihiv, Ukraine, and the nearby villages. They are always where they are needed. Where houses and destinies are scorched by war. Where pain and trouble live. Where there is rampant hopelessness. They bring hope with them, and do you know what it looks like? Hope is the men and women in overalls and bandanas who clear the rubble, erect walls, and repair roofs; hope is the piles of foam blocks and construction equipment; hope is the life-affirming hum of chainsaws that accompanies the reconstruction of war-ravaged homes, hope – helping Ukrainians during the war.
Andrii Halyuha is a person for whom helping others is a way of interacting with the world. It is his way, as natural as breathing. He is a volunteer who never speaks in terms of “I”, only “we”, and a person of incredible depth, soul, and heart. He is an electrician who quotes Seneca and Marcus Aurelius.
His phone is frequently busy. “People call me almost 24 hours a day,” Andrii laughs. “Someone is asking for help with fixing their roof because of the cold weather, someone else needs help with sorting out the rubble… We try to help everyone!”
“Wait, please, the caller is speaking for our Victory,” says the voice on the phone. And I am certain that it is exactly the way it is!
Helping Ukrainians during the war: the beginning
“People need People”
– “Where did it all start?” is a question that has been asked not once or twice, but many times before. I remember you telling in one of the interviews how you were in the bomb shelter during the siege of Chernihiv and heard a conversation about rebuilding Chernihiv after the war…
– Yes, but I realized that it was not necessary to wait untilthe end of the war, like waiting for the grass to regrow or for some special signs, but instead we could and should start rebuilding right now! As Seneca wrote, “Love if you want to be loved, paint if you want to paint, do if you want to do so!”
Instead of leaving pompous phrases, hundreds of words, and thousands of tearful emoji on the Internet, we simply come to people sitting in the ruins of their house, as if in the ruins of their life, and just start dismantling the rubble, restoring the destroyed roof, or changing the windows broken by a blast wave. Any person will understand that they are not alone. “You will rebuild and everything will be fine.” You don’t even have to say it out loud, it is self-evident.
– NGO Bo Mozhemo Volunteer Union is a gathering of people who are not unsympathetic to other people’s grief.
– The way all of our people came together is also a very bright story about the attraction of “positively charged particles”. It all started when me and some of my friends started helping people clear rubble in Chernihiv and the outskirts of the city. We then wrote on social networks, asking for people to come join us if they want and can. Ukrainians used to build houses together, in the so-called toloka, some centuries ago! Helping Ukrainians is our thing, it is in our DNA to unite and help others together! And this idea of humanity and assistance ignited our people and united them so much that one of our toloka gathered well over two hundred people. I didn’t even have time to photograph them all because I was running here and there all the time: some people needed tools, others needed water and a snack, and all the logistics and management were on me. Though we had so many people participating, everything was planned and organized carefully, so we had a sort of high-tech ant colony. As Sun Tzu said, “You should lead the many the way you lead the few.”
Our people are People with a capital “P”! We had an impressive case when a man with a group 1 disability came to one of our gatherings. He could not walk very well: people supported him on the way to us, but he was still taking one brick at a time and slowly rebuilding.
Many of our volunteers brought their children, especially in summer. Kids watched adults working and tried to join them to the best of their ability. This is how you invest in the future — simply by showing children humanity, unity, and mutual assistance. It often happens that the people we have helped with clearing the rubble, repairing or rebuilding, warm up to us and come later to help others.
Although occasionally there is some rain on our parade, such as when we work in the yard all day, and the neighbors just look at us over the fence and do not even think about coming over to help. It’s a strange and wild thing to me. Listen, people, the world does not end at the threshold of your apartment! Helping Ukrainians during the war is the work of Ukrainians themselves! You shouldn’t wait for someone to come and do it or think that it is the task of the state. Boys and girls, we are the state! The state is the people. But there are plenty of radiant people, and even the darkness exposed by the war does not discourage us; it simply shows that we need to work harder.
What will remain in the memory
“You repair a house, and thereby repair human souls”
– In some global sense, the things you are doing make a great metaphor: you are clearing the rubble and building a new country with joint efforts. But is it difficult literally building and repairing houses for people, while not being professional construction workers?
– I can definitely say that fate leads the willing and drags the unwilling. When we didn’t know something purely technical for repair and construction, we read, researched, and watched videos. If a person is brainy and wants to know something, they can figure out absolutely anything. In addition, we have several professional construction workers in our team, and they have been helping and guiding us through these things.
I am tech-savvy by education (though I do have some legal and medical background), and it doesn’t matter to me what exactly I try to figure out, whether it is power industry, plumbing, or something else. The school of life taught me that if you don’t know something, then you have to search to find it.
Skillful hands, a clear mind, and a warm heart, that’s all that each of our Bo Mozhemo people needs, both guys and girls. Yes, we have girls in our volunteer group, quite a few of them, and they are so cool! They work as much as men, and sometimes we even have to stop them in their zeal so that they do not start repairing the neighboring houses! [he laughs]
– War destroys not only houses, but also destinies… Which stories of help during the war are the most memorable for you?
– One of the most memorable stories is one of our first construction projects is the home for two sisters, Grandma Vira and her sister Praskovia from Bobrovytsia. Their house was destroyed by a Russian shell last spring, and they lived in a chicken coop after that. I’m not saying this figuratively, they literally lived in a chicken coop of 2.5 by 1.5 meters! It was both a sad and scary sight. But when the house we were building started to come along, they both changed even in appearance, they cheered up, even began singing songs. It was a very touching, very thrilling moment for all of us.
Additionally, we cannot miss talking about the 90-year-old man from Trysvyatska Sloboda in the ruins of his house. He was distraught, saying, “Guys, I don’t even want to live anymore, because what can I do, how can I live? I can’t do everything myself…” Nevertheless, he did not wait for any help, day after day he was collecting bricks from junkyards, hewing them with his ax and making a temporary shelter from them himself. And when we were finishing his house, the grandpa was filled with life, he was coming to us with a bottle, saying, “Guys, let’s have a drink or something… But quickly, while my old lady is not here, otherwise she will scold me if she sees it.” I said to him, “We don’t drink, grandpa, that’s not what we are here for.” And he said, “Well, what kind of workers are you then?” [he laughs.] There was a bit of everything, both tears and laughter.
It happens that you repair a house, and thereby repair human souls. So many human destinies, so many stories… Grandma Halya from Bobrovytsia, who planted a vegetable garden by her destroyed house and tried to treat us with something delicious all the time; Maryna from Novyi Bilous, who still has so much light in her, despite the dark misfortune that the war brought to her family… The war reveals and exposes everything, it is a litmus test for people.
The power of thought
“What kind of burnout can you have if you’re doing what you enjoy doing?”
– Have you ever counted how many houses in the Chernihiv region you have already repaired and rebuilt?
– I can’t tell you any numbers, we don’t keep the statistics. Our mission is a little different. Our mission is to show that we CAN! That’s how it has to be, helping others just like that. Simply because we can!
Many volunteers nowadays talk about fatigue or burnout. But what kind of burnout can you have if you are doing what you enjoy doing, and if you don’t do it just to put a medal on your chest? As my mother used to say, “When you succeed in something, you can even forget to eat.” That’s how it is, what kind of burnout can we talk about? If you are afraid, don’t do it. If you do it, don’t be afraid.
We have been fighting the same enemy for over six hundred years, it is too early to be tired of war! If we do not fight, volunteer, help, and donate, we will simply disappear.
Sometimes, my mother calls me and I tell her, “I’m at work,” and she asks me, “Which one exactly?” [he laughs.] Our volunteer work is the second job after the main one for all of us. It gives nice bonuses, but not a salary, as Bo Mozhemo volunteers simply don’t have it. It is pleasant company and communication with incredible people! Talking about our work, I will always remember the words of a displaced guy who came to us from Bucha after looking at our work. “People don’t work for money LIKE THIS!”
I’m happy to be with these people, to do what we do. It’s cool to know that there are so many of us. But, as my friend said, we will work even if we are alone, as much as we can and then a bit more.