In a studio at the heart of the Czech
capital, radio veterans work together with absolute beginners to provide the
refugees with what they need to know to settle as smoothly as possible in a new
country.
The staff of 10 combines people who have
fled Ukraine in recent weeks with those who have been living abroad for years.
No matter who they are, their common goal is to help fellow Ukrainians and
their homeland facing the brutal Russian invasion
Natalia Churikova, an experienced
journalist with Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said she couldn't
say no to an offer to become the broadcaster's editor-in-chief.
“It was for my people, for people who
really needed help, who really needed support, something that would help them
start a new live or restart their lives here after they have lived through very
bad things trying to escape from Ukraine,” Churikova said.
Staffer Sofia Tatomyr is one of those who
left to escape the war. The 22-year-old from the western town of Kalush was
making plans to move to another city in Ukraine when a friend called one
morning: “Sofia, the war has just begun.”
Her parents and older brother opted to stay
home, but they wanted her to join her aunt in Prague.
“It happened all of a sudden,” she said.
She boarded a bus alone in Cherniutsi and arrived 28 hours later in the Czech
capital, a city she'd never visited.
“When I was already abroad, I remember the
moment that I was crying and I was trying to buy a ticket and I couldn't spell
what ticket I need. It was really difficult,” she said.
Tatomyr worked as graphic designer and
singer in Ukraine after getting a degree as a publisher and media editor. Radio
broadcasting was part of her courses at the university. To her surprise, her
aunt's brother found an announcement about jobs for a new Ukrainian radio
station.
She said she needed “some time to
understand that not everybody can be at the frontline at the war and everybody
has to do what he or she can do the best."
"So this is how I'm cheering myself up
that I'm doing my profession, that I'm doing what I can do the best, and this
is the best way I can help our people, I can help Ukraine. This is how I'm
thinking about it,“ she said.
Safe in Prague, she was still trying to
come to terms with the invasion of her homeland.
“It's horrible,” she said. “I can't still
find any logical explanation for what they're doing and why they're doing it.
In the 21st century, a war? Why? We were a peaceful nation living just our
lives.”
Another announcer, Marharyta Golobrodska,
was working as a copywriter for a software company when she received a call
from Churikova, whom she knew from an internship at Radio Free Europe.
“I used to consider those who get up early
to be ready to work from 6am crazy, but that's what I do now and I thoroughly
enjoy it,” Golobrodska said. “That's what I always wanted to do, to be helpful
for my country, even though I live so far away.”
For 12 hours each weekday — and 11 hours on
weekends — Radio Ukraine plays Ukrainian and western music while presenting
news of Ukraine and the Czech Republic together with information for refugees
every 15 minutes. It includes details about where they can get the documents
they need from local authorities, how to get a job or medical treatment, or how
to find a place for children at schools. Children can listen to Ukrainian fairy
tales.
A native of the southern city of Mykolaiv,
Golobrodska has lived in the Czech Republic for eight-and-a-half years. After
the invasion, she travelled to western Ukraine to meet her mother and
9-year-old sister and drive them to safety. In Prague, she got them involved in
her broadcast.
“My mum, for example, told me she'd like to
hear what she's not supposed to do here. For example, that she can't park the
car anywhere she wants to like in Ukraine,” she said.
Bohemia Media, which operates several radio
stations in the Czech Republic, came up with the idea to launch the station. It
provided a studio and its people cooperated with the Ukrainian embassy, the
local Ukrainian community and others to make it reality in three weeks. It also
covers the salaries.
Lukas Nadvornik, the owner of the
Mediapark, a company that represents Bohemia Media, said the plan is for the
station to remain on air as long as it's needed. The key task for now is to let
know as many potential listeners as possible about its existence.
One of them is Sophia Medvedeva. The
23-year old web designer couldn't hold back tears as she talked about the
recent six-day drive with her mother and younger brother from Mykolaiv to
Krakow, Poland.
But in Prague, she joined her fiancé and
Radio Ukraine helped her adapt to a new life. “I'm so amazed about the chance
to listen to Ukrainian music when I'm not in my homeland. I feel that I'm not
alone,” she said. Her only recommendation for it is to invite a psychologist to
“advise the Ukrainian refugees about how to fight the survivor syndrome and how
to fight depression.”
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