{"id":849529,"date":"2025-05-19T19:12:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T00:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/19\/tea-and-sympathy-ukrainian-outcasts-find-dignity-from-stigma-and-shelling-in-last-safe-space\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T19:12:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T00:12:03","slug":"tea-and-sympathy-ukrainian-outcasts-find-dignity-from-stigma-and-shelling-in-last-safe-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/19\/tea-and-sympathy-ukrainian-outcasts-find-dignity-from-stigma-and-shelling-in-last-safe-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Tea and sympathy: Ukrainian outcasts find dignity from stigma and shelling in last safe space"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Svitanok <\/picture><\/div>\n

Svitanok (meaning dawn) staff member Svitlana Andreieva (centre) stands at the entrance of the charitable foundation office in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, one of the last organisations still providing care for those living with the condition near the war-ravaged front. \u2014 AFP pic<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Planning your holiday getaway? Invest RM100 with Versa<\/a> & grab RM10 FREE<\/strong> to kickstart your travel fund. Use VERSAMM10<\/strong> now!<\/p>\n

\n

Sunday, 04 May 2025 9:00 PM MYT<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

KRAMATORSK (Ukraine), May 4 \u2014 Whenever warm days come to Kramatorsk, near the eastern Ukrainian front, the Svitanok organisation leaves its door wide open, offering advice or a cup of tea to the city\u2019s social outcasts.<\/p>\n

People living with HIV, those recovering from drug addiction, sex workers \u2013 all are welcome to seek medical guidance and respite from stigma and solace as Russian troops advance toward Kramatorsk.<\/p>\n

The refuge they find at Svitanok is vital during the war, when marginalised communities often feel left behind and face heightened insecurity and stigma.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey support me here, they respect me. I just came to drink some tea. They\u2019ll treat me, I know they\u2019ll accept me,\u201d says Oleg Makaria, who is HIV-positive.<\/p>\n

Makaria, who comes to Svitanok most days, hardly reacts to the air raid sirens once again wailing in Kramatorsk, just 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the front.<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old jokes that he does not look his age. But he suddenly breaks down thinking about Donetsk, his home city now in Russian hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand I can\u2019t return to Donetsk anymore. Never in my life. Probably… I\u2019m here alone,\u201d he mutters through tears.<\/p>\n

Moscow-backed separatists seized parts of the Donetsk region in 2014, a prelude to the Kremlin\u2019s full-scale 2022 invasion, which the UNHCR says has displaced nearly 11 million people.<\/p>\n

The conflict disrupted treatment \u2013 which needs to be taken daily to control HIV \u2013 to some of the 250,000 Ukrainians estimated by UNAIDS to be living with the infection in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u2018I didn\u2019t break\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Advances from Russian troops have also threatened drug treatment programmes.<\/p>\n

Moscow and its proxies have banned opioid substitution, which replaces dangerous opioids with less harmful substances such as methadone.<\/p>\n

Approved by the United Nations and the World Health Organisation, the treatment also reduces HIV transmission as it lowers drug injections.<\/p>\n

No one would guess looking at Natalia Zelenina, but the bright social worker sporting a red bob and bright pink lipstick spent five years in Russian custody.<\/p>\n

She was carrying legally prescribed drugs for her replacement therapy when she was stopped by Moscow-backed separatists controlling parts of the Donetsk region in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realised how strong I was,\u201d the 52-year-old said.<\/p>\n

While her colleagues campaigned to get her out, she fought to obtain treatment for her HIV.<\/p>\n

\u201cI survived, I endured it all. I went through it all. I didn\u2019t break,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Natalia<\/p>\n

Natalia Zelenina, 52, poses for a portrait in the office of the Svitanok charitable foundation, where she works as a social worker after spending five years in Russian custody. \u2014 AFP pic<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

After being released to Kyiv-controlled territory in a prisoner exchange, Zelenina returned to Svitanok.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that I could only recover in a familiar atmosphere,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

But even in the protective bubble of Svitanok, where most workers have HIV and a drug dependency, the boom of explosions can be heard in the distance.<\/p>\n

One employee told AFP she started consuming \u201cjust a little bit\u201d of drugs to alleviate her anxiety \u2013 until her colleagues helped her get clean again.<\/p>\n

Iryna Mamalakieva arrives holding her four-year-old son Maksym, who wobbled off at any opportunity to pick dandelions on a patch of grass.<\/p>\n

The unemployed 31-year-old former mine operator, diagnosed with HIV in 2019, relies on Svitanok for medical and legal help.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people give up, some hang themselves. I knew people like that: They found out about their diagnosis, and even if they had children, they drank themselves to death and quietly went to hang themselves,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Melancholy in my soul\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n

The war has exacerbated stigma towards HIV-positive people and those suffering from drug addictions, counsellor Svitlana Andreieva told AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rest of the world that\u2019s outside our doors, it tells them that they are nobody, that they\u2019re not accepted, they\u2019re not respected,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Andreieva herself remembers being kicked out of hospitals and beaten up by the police because she was addicted to drugs and HIV-positive.<\/p>\n

Then she learned law, which she shares with visitors who went through similar experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next time they don\u2019t come with tears,\u201d she said. \u201cThey say: \u2018What do I need to do, which law article should I rely on?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But Andreieva\u2019s patience is often tested.<\/p>\n

After an altercation with a regular, she finds a bouquet of lilacs in lieu of apologies in the office.<\/p>\n

Hard to win over, she initially shrugs it off.<\/p>\n

But Svitanok\u2019s workers and beneficiaries face yet another hurdle: cuts in US humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Since<\/p>\n

Since the war began, some of the 250,000 Ukrainians estimated by UNAIDS to be living with HIV in 2020 have faced disruption to their anti-retroviral treatment, which needs to be taken daily to control the infection. \u2014 AFP pic<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Svitanok has for now survived Washington\u2019s aid freeze, but is scrambling to find alternative sources of funding for some of its many programmes, which partly rely on US money.<\/p>\n

The uncertainty \u201creally knocked me out of my stability\u201d, Zelenina says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s such a melancholy in my soul, you know? I love my job. I simply can\u2019t imagine what I will do tomorrow.\u201d \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Malay Mail
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Svitanok (meaning dawn) staff member Svitlana Andreieva (centre) stands at the entrance of the charitable foundation office in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, one of the last organisations still providing care for those living with the condition near the war-ravaged front. \u2014 AFP pic Planning your holiday getaway? Invest RM100 with Versa & grab RM10 FREE to kickstart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":849530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98992,2497],"tags":[112419,16483],"class_list":{"0":"post-849529","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sympathy","8":"category-ukrainian","9":"tag-sympathy","10":"tag-ukrainian"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}