Сharity during War: Interview with the Founder and Director of the Fund, Natalia Valevska

• By the way, all the initiatives of the foundation are now called “Peace over Ukraine”. This is what was relevant, what is relevant today, and what will be relevant after the war is over. And we have a lot of plans for restoring Ukraine.

• Hello, this is another episode of the program “Charity in Time of War from the Firsthand”. Today we have Natalia Valevska, the head of the eponymous foundation, a well-known Ukrainian singer, public figure, volunteer and simply a people’s favorite, to join us on the program. I welcome you.

• Congratulations, Mr. Yuriy. It’s a pleasure to be here.

• Here is the first question. As far as I know, you have been engaged in charitable activities for 20 years. When did you actually create your foundation and tell us what its purpose was and what has changed since the war started?

• So the charity foundation was established in 2009 – 14 years ago, and as you rightly noted, I have been engaged in charitable activities for more than 20 years, simply at the call of my soul. The foundation was created thanks to one of the officials of Khmelnytsky region. At that time, I was an honorary volunteer of the “Heart to Heart” campaign. Many Ukrainians know it by these heart stickers and volunteers with boxes with hearts on them. I was an honorary volunteer and actively participated in the fundrasing when I found out that in our region only 3,600 hryvnias were raised for children’s equipment for our regional hospital from the entire region, just imagine. For the city of Khmelnytsky, which at that time had a population of 290 thousand people and more than 330 thousand people in our region at least together with farmers and a lot of enterprises, can you imagine that? I would say that we had opportunities at that time. I was outraged, and it was very important for me as a resident of Podolia to do everything possible to turn these 3,600 hryvnias from our region into a completely different amount, which would be significant, which would really help to purchase children’s equipment, diagnostic equipment for the regional children’s hospital. I appealed to the governor.

• So, this particular case with such a meager amount…

• It deeply affected me. You could call it a kind of sporting anger on my part. I was outraged because I realized at the time that our citizens, our Podolyany, would definitely benefit from more people knowing about any initiative and its direction, that it is for our children – little Ukrainians. They need to know that this initiative is for diagnostics, for keeping children healthy. So yes, I joined and appealed to the governor, and he said: “Natalia, if it were your foundation, I would join you”. We all understand that people who hold certain positions still have leverage and can do a lot by staying in office for a certain period of time. And it was very important for me that everyone who had the ability to make certain decisions at that time should join in. Unfortunately, you see, it didn’t happen. So I created my own charitable foundation to help children, and I am very grateful to the former governor for that. And since then, since 2009, the area of assistance has been focused on children, orphans, children with various disabilities, assistance to orphanages, assistance for the socialization of our orphans – everything that will help them to enter adulthood after they come of age. This is what the foundation had been doing all these years before the invasion. And now we have added three more areas, and these are: first of all, children. We help orphans, and we help the army, and we help vulnerable temporarily displaced persons – our IDPs.

• As far as I know, and as far as I follow your activities, from the very first days of the war you just knocked on every door. You approached everyone you could to help the guys at the front line of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

• The fact is that, like many families, I also have a lot of friends and close people who left their entire past and all their activities and went to the front. And so I realized that we, well, I in this case in the rear, we had to do everything possible to help them meet the needs of a separate company. And I focused my attention on this. I received feedback from the company what they needed. They didn’t have the time to look for those kikimors, those boots. I can go on and on about the needs, and of course I have contacted other volunteer organizations, other charitable foundations and everyone who has given up all their time, all their resources to create and do something that they haven’t done before. These nets and bulletproof vests, including the necessary equipment, are to make it easier for our defenders to defend and protect our Ukrainian land.

• Tell us about your cooperation with the Warsaw Front.

• At the beginning of the war, it happened that when I was actually searching for and meeting the needs of a separate company, I met a lot of people, including what is called the five handshake rule. Many people have a stereotype of a famous personality, a popular singer, and she.. I don’t know. Everyone paints my personal life in their own colors, but in fact I am a simple person like everyone else, and it was very important for me to help. Every day, from morning to evening, I was helping. So it happened that I got acquainted with the organization from Kamianets-Podilskyi, and the representatives of this wonderful organization “the Georatusha” introduced me to the Warsaw Front charity organization, and thanks to this wonderful collaboration, this acquaintance, we delivered a lot of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and thus met the needs of internally displaced persons.

• By the way, as far as I know, you also went to the front line to raise the fighting spirit of our guys.

• Yes, that was it. You know that we can’t always cover what is happening in the lives of the artists, because there is also secret information, secret places where we are taken to. We are given the geolocation at the very last moment and we are taken there, and we performed for the guys who were trained just before they went to the front, at zero. It was the hardest thing for me personally, I had to adjust myself mentally and psychologically for a very long time, because I realized that the guys who were defending Ukraine, whom I would have to perform for and raise their spirits, would not all come home. I understood this very well, and it is probably the hardest thing in general to perform for the orphans of our heroes and for our defenders who have to go on a mission. But you know, God probably created me as an artist and as a Ukrainian for this purpose. I have a certain gift and I have to give it away. It is my duty to help those who desperately need it through the art of cultural diplomacy. That’s why our wonderful defenders are the best audience, and our kids are the best audience. And the guys were singing along – absolutely all the songs, they were dancing to, they were taking selfies, and I shook hands with everyone because I wanted to charge them so much, and each handshake was accompanied by a quick prayer in my mind: God bless you, God bless you, come back safe and somehow it was like that. My dressing room was a dugout. It was nice, of course, the guys fed me very well. I ate what they ate. It also unites you somehow, helps you to immerse yourself in this atmosphere and understand what they feel, what their life is like, and how strong and sturdy they are, how much they love Ukraine. I have probably never felt such love for the land, such great strenght anywhere else.

• That is, you remember this concert, this performance, for the rest of your life.

• Definitely. It’s impossible to even put these emotions into words, to write these emotions in any words at all.

• The fact that you are involved as an artist, a volunteer at all possible charity events, concerts in Ukraine, as well as in Europe and other countries, tell us about your participation in foreign concerts, and what exactly the funds were raised for at those events.

• Oh, there are so many things I can’t remember right now. You know, what helps me to be focused on what has been done is the report on the website of our foundation. Anyone can go there, “Natalia Valevska foundation.org” and see in the report section what has been done since 2008 to the present day. In that year, 2022, it is clear that the first performance was the performance of the Childhood Ambasadori in Khmelnytsky city. But then the borders were expanding and our charitable activities took place outside of Ukraine, and I would have been invited to live in another country and thus ensure a completely safe life, thank you. So I did not agree. The only exceptions were trips to these charity concerts. One of them was a performance in Lugano, where I joined the initiative of our president’s foundation United 24, and this concert was actually held there under the patronage of the Ukrainian Embassy in Switzerland. And it was extremely nice to meet our Ukrainians abroad, those who left, those who were forced to leave. These are completely different emotions. Again, I have been singing these songs for so long, for example, there: “Palala”, “I Love Ukraine”, and other songs. I’ve been singing them for so many years, more than 10 years. But when you meet Ukrainians who perceive you as a part of their native land, as a message from their homeland. These are completely different concerts with tears of joy, tears of grief, because we are definitely touching on the topic of parents, who did not wait for her son or daughter, and these are tears, this is a great deep sadness, so these concerts are necessary. They are necessary for all of us, first of all, so that we can bring our culture to the world, so that we can remind people again and again of what is happening in our Ukraine, of the conditions in which we live. So it was not just concerts. I also took part in the World Economic Forum in Davos, where I also conveyed the message to many business representatives, including the global ones. We have our guys on the front line – they are defenders, but we also have to help the business front, and communications, and attract investments. So this is cultural diplomacy that went on in parallel. And for example, the speech in Zurich was a speech that helped me, among other things, to meet and speak to the president of the University of Zurich and to the faculty, absolutely everyone who teaches there.
• “I would like to say hello to everybody here. You are very honorable and I’m glad to be here. I would like to say a big thank you to the whole Switzerland and all universities, that you stand with Ukraine and support Ukrainians. Today, when I was walking down the streets regular people came to me and I was very touched that regular people came to me, because of the symbols and dress. They saw my special dress with special colours and today we have a special day: it’s called Vyshyvanka Day – the day of traditional costume – the symbol of struggling. And they saw the colours of ukrainian flag: yellow and blue. And they said the words of support, that they support Ukraine. They shared their warmth and their kindness to me and to all people in Ukraine. Ukrainians are very strong nation and very brave nation. And we don’t want Russia invasion, we don’t want any attacks and nuclear weapon to Ukrain and other European countries. We don’t want to have our people murdered, killed. We don’t want to have our children murdered and killed. I was in Irpin I saw those terrible things with my own eyes. It’s a big tragedy for all our people. And I there are people who support Ukraine. And people who support Ukraine are here and I want to say thank you to every single person who is present in this room. And I want to say thank to the whole Stzerland and Swiss nation. I appreciate your support a lot. And I want to sing the national song of Ukrain:

Glorious spirit of Ukraine shines and lives forever

Blessed by Fortune brotherhood will stand up together.

Like the dew before the sun enemies will fade,

We will further rule and prosper in our promised land.

We will lay our soul and body for the cherished freedom

Cossack blood will raise the nation of the joyuos people.

Glory to Ukraine! – Glory to Heroes!”

• And I made a speech, I talked about Irpin, about Bucha. I burst into tears. At that moment, I was speaking on Vyshyvanka Day. I put on our embroidered shirt, and it was very significant, and I also gave the embroidered shirt as a gift, and brought yellow and blue ribbons as a gift to everyone who supports Ukraine. It was extremely pleasant and I would also like to note and thank Switzerland, because despite the fact that for so many years Switzerland as a country has been neutral, now Switzerland supports Ukraine, supports peace and does everything to stop this war. In particular, I want to thank the people, the mayor, and the authorities of Zurich and Switzerland for delivering 40 thousand tons of food to the Kharkiv region. This is exactly the moment when the Kharkiv region was liberated. It was a great help and to this day it continues, including diplomatically. In Spain, for example, we were there with People’s Artist of Ukraine Olga Sumska, Iryna Bilyk and Amador Lopis, on the initiative of Amar Ukraine and Yuriy Gordienko, who brought more than 12 thousand children from the occupied territories and active combat zones. We collected money for solid fuel boilers for orphans who moved from these areas to western Ukraine, and we did this to keep our children warm before this heating season. So, these are some isolated moments. Thank you. My colleagues and I have been involved in supporting them, and there are many of them, and we will continue to do so.

• Let’s go back to the activities of your foundation. What events did you organize and who were the famous people, perhaps even internationally, involved in these events?

• You know, in my practice it has been different. For example, when the National Olympic Committee invited me to support our charity Olympic team in Beijing at the Ukrainian Embassy, I was extremely pleased that Prince Albert visited our team and our Ukrainian Embassy and I met him personally.

• The Prince of Monaco?

• Yes, the Prince of Monaco. I am very happy in general that it is a joy to see the participation of iconic personalities, politicians, royalty, presidents and public figures, Hollywood stars and singers, my colleagues from around the world. We need this tremendously, and it is important what they did up to this day, what they do every day. And we still need their support, we still need it to get involved as much as possible until the war in Ukraine is over and do everything possible to stop this bloodshed, because every day in Ukraine children are dying, every day in Ukraine people are dying, every day in Ukraine millions of people are starving and left without electricity, without water, without food, on the verge of death. We really need the world’s help and support. And when I was in Davos, there was an exposition of the war in Ukraine in the Russian House. It doesn’t convey what is happening here today, so it is very important that such people support us. There was also a time when I visited a center for children with Down syndrome in Kyiv with a charitable initiative. Representatives, athletes, and world-famous stars of the National Basketball Association of America also visited the center, where the athletes brought a lot of educational games. And what I think is most important because the power of words is so powerful. They made a motivating speech for the kids. So it’s great to have such world-famous people involved. We are always open for cooperation, and our foundation also helps to become a bridge – a bridge of help and a bridge of kind hearts.

• In general, can you name some of the key moments where you provided targeted assistance? Perhaps organizations, specific people in the regions, name them, please.

• Well, it’s hard to remember everyone, and by the way, for more than 20 years I have not collected any information about who we helped and when, because all the time my activity was directed in parallel with my charity work to creative activity and in fact, when I had 25 concerts a month in the city where we performed, we always tried to visit an orphanage or a baby home and bring something to them, because children are always waiting. And most importantly, they are waiting for love. You can’t buy it by going to the store or transferring some crypto for love, because love is something that everyone carries and again decides to give or not. And children who do not have parents need love first and foremost, so the address assistance is good and necessary, and we need finances to buy eyes for our defenders and to buy, as I said, solid fuel boilers, including food and clothing, including furniture, basic household items. But this love is needed and a lot of things have been done and support, if we talk about targeted assistance, then there is a disabled lady in Khmelnytsky, and we personally visited her. The roof was leaking and she was living in terrible conditions, because a person who is paralyzed cannot take care of herself, so we have already involved people in Khmelnytsky. For example, this is how I pulled myself up, I also involve my friends, acquaintances, everyone who could support me financially or just help this woman in her everyday life, clean something, bring something, buy something in a store. It’s also not just a matter of transferring money. And then there was the girl with crystal disease from Ivano-Frankivsk region. I also raised all my friends and sent money from my concerts to help her a little bit, because this is a constant rehabilitation of a girl who has fragile joints and bones, which are fragile due to a genetic disease. And there are a lot of people like her. Over the past 20 years, we have done a lot of things, including taking initiatives from other charitable foundations, organizations and businesses. Together we have done a lot. If you go to the regional children’s hospital in your city, which is not occupied territory, and ask where the equipment was purchased from the Heart to Heart campaign, the doctors will show you because we have done a lot over the years, thank God, and it helps to treat children, and we have done a lot of things now. For example, the most recent is what we did together with Yuriy Gordienko, who I mentioned today, which is the evacuation of a large family, namely 11 children were evacuated from the active combat zone. They went through hell, and an orphan boy who had been living in the basement for over a year was also evacuated with them. They lived under artillery fire. To say that they have experienced horror is an understatement. This is definitely a family that needs absolutely everything – new housing, food, necessary for children, including newborns, clothes and that’s what we are doing now. This is a prefabricated evacuation vehicle that we absolutely need, because the collaborators destroyed the minibus and now we have an urgent need to continue to take children out of the occupied territory, the zone of active hostilities. So now I would like to urge you to join all the collections that are posted, you can choose where you want to direct your help, either to children or to our army, to our defenders, to our IDPs. Choose and always remember that even one hryvnia is a huge contribution. It’s just a huge contribution, so if you can’t join in, for example, you can share it on social media and it will also help. Learn more about what our activities are aimed at, what we are currently raising funds for.

• By the way, I recently came across an article in the New York Times describing your charitable activities related to the Okhmatdyt clinic. Could you tell us about it?

• You know, when I started my charity work 20 years ago, I didn’t think about where I would be written about, how I would be honored, who would thank me for what I had done. Absolutely not. Everything that was done was done simply by the call of the soul in a certain state, because I believe that I need to do it, I can do it, and I did it, but I was pleasantly surprised that such an authoritative world publication noted that I was wearing a patriotic dress. By the way, it is from the Ukrainian designer Tatiana Garmatyuk, and I am happy and proud to say that. I performed at the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital. It was also a difficult performance, it cannot be compared to the performance in front of our guys at the training ground, but it was a performance in front of the kids who were wounded and went through very scary moments. They are in a difficult psychological state, they are in a difficult physical state. The enemies with their bloodthirsty and absolutely heartless attacks and they just do not even realize what they are doing and many children died. And in Medica at that time there was a small number of children who could attend that concert. The rest were lying in their wards. But you know, this was the atmosphere when I walked in and saw children in wheelchairs, many of whom had tubes sticking out of their stomachs, some with drips, some connected, because these tubes provided them with life. In fact, that’s why I’m very happy that such a reputable publication as the New York Times noted that we had this event, that I performed, sang for the kids, and this is really what I’ve been saying. This is my mission. I have to support both the little ones and those who are defending our country, and those who have been traumatized by the war, absolutely everyone, so I have supported our Ukrainians and will continue to support them. And where it will be, whether it will be in Okhmatdyt or outside of Ukraine, it does not matter. And I want to say, first of all, I would like to thank this publication and all the other world publications that publish and tell the truth about what is happening in Ukraine, and this is a very big support. You are helping us in the information struggle against Russia and I ask you to continue to support our country until Ukraine’s victory.

• What plans have you outlined for the foundation’s work so far?

• At the moment, our main task is to successfully hold a charity auction and reach 150% of our goal, which is to help children, help our defenders, the army, and help the poor. Therefore, everyone who has the opportunity to join in, to come to Lviv or to buy lots remotely, or just go to the website and choose, as I said, one of the lots and join the army of these good angels, I will be very happy. We also have a volunteer application form on our website. If you have the opportunity to give half an hour or an hour a week or a day or more time individually, this is also a huge contribution of enormous help. We need these hands, we need these heads. Absolutely representatives of different professions will all be appropriate because we still have so much to do for Ukraine to win, so we invite you to a charity auction in Lviv on May 5 at 17:00 and the beginning and actually all the rest of the initiative is that we want to close all these collections that are now on the site in 2023 and plan a number of Gala dinners outside of Ukraine. If you see announcements in my social networks, I will be pleased if you subscribe, because lately I have all the information about the activities of the foundation. We have to win in the near future, we have to stop the deaths and if you see announcements of events, please join or pass on to your friends and relatives who are in this or that country.

• And what will be the first thing you do when the war is over and what will your foundation do when we finally get our long-awaited victory?

• I’ve gone over this many times in my head. First of all, I will get down on my knees and thank God that finally this horror has stopped and there will definitely be a small moment when we will celebrate. I will call my family, we will cry, I will cry, and we will remember all those who gave their lives for peace in Ukraine. It’s a little hard to talk. By the way, all the initiatives of the foundation now called “Peace over Ukraine” are about what was relevant, what is relevant today, and what will be relevant after the war is over. Therefore, we will not stop, we will take a breath, gain energy, and we have a lot of plans to restore Ukraine. In particular, if we talk about children, it is the restoration of educational institutions, psychological rehabilitation programs, and projects of the initiative aimed at supporting children from the occupied and active combat zones. We will also be involved in the rehabilitation of our defenders even after the war is over, as they will need our help and support. These are our heroes and we will support them as long as we live, and in any case, we will participate in initiatives to build housing for Ukrainians who have gone abroad. I really want all our Ukrainians who have left to return here and live in the most prosperous country in the world, which is our Ukraine, the best country in the world, where I really want them to have a place to live, develop, realize themselves, work and raise their children, our little Ukrainians, for whom we are all fighting, to win back our land and this is our main motivation, goal and what warms our souls every day.

• And finally, your wishes to our readers and viewers of Operational Ukraine Info

• On February 24, 2022, we were all united by one common misfortune and an irresistible love for our country. We are given a chance to feel involved in the creation of a great world history. We are Ukrainians who prove to the whole world that we are unbreakable in our desire to live in peace, harmony and freedom. Our soldiers have become a true example of heroism in inhuman conditions. They bravely defend the borders of their native country side by side with our women defenders, volunteers, doctors and teachers, business leaders and athletes, lawyers and journalists, representatives of any other profession, who provide invaluable assistance and save lives every day. They help the frontline as much as they can and educate young children as Cossacks. Every day, together, with our work, holy prayer and courageous struggle, we are confidently bringing our victory closer. Our foundation has been helping, is helping and will continue to help. We will do everything possible, everything in our power, to speed up Ukraine’s victory as soon as possible, so please join all our initiatives. Yours with love and sincerity, Natalia Valevska.

• Thank you very much for this interview. Glory to Ukraine!

• Glory to the heroes! Thank you. All will be Ukraine!