After eight months of occupation, last November the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine was liberated from Russian occupation. Since then, it has suffered daily bombardments and its population is constantly confronted with power cuts. And it is sorely lacking in shelters equipped with heating but also the Internet to take refuge and continue to communicate.
3,500 km away, Nataliia Lynnyk, a Ukrainian exiled in Toulouse (where one of her sons is studying) has imagined a modular place for the martyr city of Kherson. She dreams of a space that could accommodate both children who need to continue to follow their lessons during the alerts, and employees who must work remotely to keep the economy running. Deputy Director of Union of Voters of Ukrainean independent observatory of the electoral polls, it used its network on the spot.
For its part, the Ukraine Libre Toulouse association has established contact with local authorities, in particular the departmental council of Haute-Garonne, which has decided to finance up to 60,000 euros part of the equipment necessary for its realization, whether it be generators, EcoFlow recharging batteries, but also folding tables or a connection and subscription to the Starlink satellite Internet offer.
Internet connection and resting place
“This center, a space for coworking and heating, could emerge in an underground place in the parking lot of a large shopping center, the head of the military administration of the city of Kherson is studying the question and established the list of needs. It will be able to accommodate up to 1,000 people who will be able to connect to the Internet, rest there, work there,” explains Nataliia Lynnyk.
A project built from scratch, with a protocol on the specifications for this type of turnkey shelter that could be duplicated in other cities in Ukraine where necessary. “For a country to survive, the economy must work, children must continue to acquire knowledge. But also, when there are cuts of 24 hours or 48 hours, as is often the case in Kherson, that people in oxygen masks can have a solution”, supports Myla Popenko, vice-president of the association Ukraine Libre which has already found a mode of transport to transport the equipment which will be purchased with the subsidy from the Department.
“Providing this aid is a means of acting in a concrete way, of already working on the reconstruction of Ukraine, it is also a means of considering future cooperation actions”, explains Didier Cujives, the vice-president of the community which had created a reception center for children and single mothers from Ukraine a month after the invasion of Ukraine, where 22 people still live there.