From War to Peace: A Story of Volunteering in Velyka Rodyna Ecovillage

[maxzalevski]

"I have now organised net weaving at the Armed Forces from the employment centre. We are paid the minimum wage. In August, I don't know. If there will be work and the harvest needs to be harvested. I don't even know how to break away and go to the Ecovillage Gathering in Sweden. How many days is the trip?"
— Olga Sklez, Ecovillage Velyka Rodyna, Podillya region.

I'm told that ecovillages in Europe do not support war in any form. I don't know how to explain it: but these nets have been woven by women for three years now.

These nets will hide their husbands, fathers, brothers, sons from death. Perhaps military, perhaps volunteers, perhaps peacekeepers.

I have heard this expression - peacekeepers. And I will say this: we are not aggressors for sure. Our armed forces are protecting us from total extermination on ethnic grounds. The Russians call it denazification. And in Europe, I can't even explain why I'm proud to be a Ukrainian, because no one there is proud of their nationality, because they say historically there is nothing to be proud of.

And this is how we live. In our ecovillagers, people volunteer to work to protect our peacekeepers. And in a large network of ecovillages, this work may be considered unacceptable from an ethical point of view.

How to deal with this? I don't want to hide it.

#ecovillage #volunteering