“When I gave up my strawberries”
Alona Karavai ran different civil-society intiatives in Donezk. Until most efforts came to hold since the conflict started in spring 2014. Today she works for Mit-Ost e.V. in the area of active citizenship and contributed to our forum with a session on how to turn organisational challenges into opportunities. Here are three of her insights, narrated through her own, personal experiences:
“It takes years for positive changes, but only moments to destroy it”.
For years Alona was active with an organisation literally translated into “the other education”, which was running non-formal educational programs in Donezk. Besides she worked for the contemporary art centre “Izolyatsia”. Clearly to Alona, there was slowly something emerging. A new generation of civil society activists. Until the situation got too tense for the activists: staff of partnering organizations, such as the Red Cross, got beaten up. Activists received warnings and most NGOs were forced to shut down their offices or move within one month. There was no way to stay. To Alona, civil society in crisis zones would be suicide. However, this situation triggered either to resign or do something against it.
Know limits of your tolerance and don't mix it up with laziness.
Concerning tolerance Alona described the dynamics of the smokers spot at the university of Donezk. Usually students of different departments would mix there. Or not, because different ideologies and believes in the Donezk's example blockaded the natural gathering. Instead of dealing with counter-opinions, the student simply ignored those who didn't reflect their perspectives. With that example, Alona emphasized the importance of pushing yourself to deal with opposing opinions and understand them - no matter how diverging they are.
Be couragous to give up your strawberries.
Alona left Donezk when the situation got too dangerous for her, while her family stayed. Regularly she was calling her mother, to hear how she was. Her mother has always been growing strawberries to make jam. She was so committed to her costume that she even took care of the strawberries under the shootings, not being ready to give them up. Indeed, it's a common pattern to stick to the things we always do, especially in crisis. In contrast to her mother, Alona left and consciously gave up the "strawberries. It is crucial to adapt to the changes given. However, accepting does not necessarily mean to be fine with a situation.
This may sound very depressing, as Alona points out smilingly at the end of the session. But it's not. It is still possible to turn the challenges into opportunities: Although her work and those of other activist is currently very restricted, Alona is blacklisted and crossing the Donezk area could put her into jail right away, this does not stop her. Today she runs initiatives from outside, in a minimum100km radius from the conflict area. They provide trainings and seminars, with a special priority for those, who decided or where forced to move from their homes. The network and organizations such as Mitost e.V. support this work widely. In fact, the strawberries are not given up. They are just been plant somewhere else.