Home is where the heart is

As a Senior Press Assistant with the OSCE SMM in Kyiv, Anna is well used to explaining issues and making sense of information and arguments. But she is unable to answer the one question her son, Aleksey, regularly poses: when are we going home?

For Anna and her five-year-old son, home is most definitely where the heart is. Although Aleksey was born in Kyiv, after Anna left Donbas in 2014, his grandparents, aunt and cousin remain in Horlivka and in other areas not controlled by the Government. Like hundreds of thousands of others cut off from family and friends by the conflict, they both cross the contact line as often as possible. “We love going home but it's the same pain every time we have to say goodbye,” Anna explains.

Every time they board the marshrutka for the long journey back to Kyiv, Aleksey is hugged by his grandmother, who is from a small town beyond the Urals and his grandfather who was born and raised in Ukraine. He switches effortlessly between languages just as his mother does. Anna's first language was in fact Russian, but as she was educated in Ukrainian from the age of 12. She now finds it hard to say which she is most fluent in. For Anna, such “confusion” has brought with it a distinct advantage. “I didn’t just learn two languages,” Anna explains. “I learnt respect for others.”

Before joining the SMM, Anna worked in the press department of FC Shakhtar Donetsk. “It was incredibly exciting,” Anna explains, outlining in particular the support she provided to the UEFA Global Communications Strategy, with its heavy emphasis on anti-racism and opposition to other forms of discrimination, and later on to Shakhtar’s Come On, Let's Play campaign, in which children all across Ukraine, including along the contact line, are provided with football kit, coaching and access to pitches. “Sport at a grassroots level can be so unifying and has an ability to connect people,” Anna says as she remembers her times with the giants of Ukrainian football.

The transition from football sidelines to the contact line has been smoother than one might expect. Anna, now spending her time on media enquiries, outreach and promotion, sees her job with the SMM as a continuation. Her work on mine awareness for school kids living along the contact line and efforts to highlight the plight of those affected by the conflict and the role played by monitoring officers in reducing tension is her small contribution towards a tolerant, stable society and ultimately to peace in her country. “When Aleksey asks when we're going home, at some point I want to be able to tell him that it’ll be soon,” she says.