“Voice is the main thing we have. I can’t take a gun and shoot, but I can speak, cry, sing, paint even.”
Dr Hannah Rose Thomas is a British artist and human rights advocate.
Hannah visited Bucharest, Romania, in June 2022, to help World Vision organise art workshops with Ukrainian refugee children. While the children played or painted, Hannah had the opportunity to spend time with their mothers and listen to their stories. Several times Hannah watched a child tenderly wipe away her mother’s tears as she spoke.
Olga and Lana
Hannah Rose Thomas, Olga and Lana, 2022. Tempera and 24ct gold leaf on panel.
Olga and Lana left Odesa in March 2022 when airstrikes bombarded the city. Olga tells Hannah: “I didn’t want to leave my home in Odesa, especially because my husband is still there, but we were afraid for our two children. I had been walking home with my children and the sound of the rockets was so loud. The ground was trembling. My son was afraid, and the noise woke my sleeping daughter. That night I cried as my husband and I decided I had to leave Ukraine.
“Now, every day I read the news and cry when my children can’t see me. I read about women and children being killed, and rockets falling on and near Odesa, our home. Many of my husband’s friends have died. I dream that the war stops and we can go back home.”
The overwhelming majority of those displaced from Ukraine are women and children – up to 90 percent. Although one may imagine women are safe once they have escaped a conflict area, evidence suggests that violence against women increases in displaced communities.
Maria and Nadiia
Hannah Rose Thomas, Maria and Nadiia, 2022.
Tempera on panel.
“The war is endless and thousands of people there are waiting to be heard in prayer. My mother and I were among them. It is a traumatic experience to have to leave home without a plan.”
Maria and her mother Nadia were living in Kyiv when the war began on February 24, 2022. Maria awoke to her mother screaming: “Masha, wake up! The war has started.”
Initially they were in denial, but after twelve sleepless days and nights hiding in their basement as a bomb shelter, they decided to leave the country and seek refuge in the United Kingdom.
Since the onset of the Russian invasion, one-third of Ukrainians have been forced from their homes. This is the largest movement of refugees in Europe since World War II, with nearly eight million refugees from Ukraine spread across Europe. There has been an outpouring of support, which has led many to hope that this could set a precedent for treating all refugees more humanely.
As Maria herself expresses it: “It does not matter what nationality you are; what matters is what you are doing in this present moment. For humanity has no geography and kindness has no nationality.”