The song with which alyona alyona and Jerry Heil took 3rd place at the Eurovision Song Contest is dedicated to the mental resilience, courage, and loyal hearts of Ukrainian women. The story of two of them inspired the singers to launch a charity fundraising to rebuild a gymnasium in the village of Velyka Kostromka in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
The building was destroyed in the fall of 2022 by a direct hit from a Russian rocket. Liudmyla Taranovych, a history teacher with 40 years of experience, stayed in the village and conducted online lessons almost every day under fire.
Teacher’s assistant Tetiana Mahda is one of those who cleared the debris of the gymnasium and is preserving what was saved. Now she continues to work in Velyka Kostroma with children with special needs. Online.
To help these courageous women, their colleagues and 250 students come back to their classrooms and to provide them with safe shelter, the Eurovision contestants, together with UNITED24, Visa and Oschadbank, initiated a fundraising campaign in late April.
The goal of the My Voice Rebuilds project is to raise UAH 10,000,000. Aurora became the first donor and donated USD 100,000, which is about UAH 4 million. That is how we wanted to draw attention to and kick off the fundraising. To support our girls on the verge of a great contest.
The fundraising is still ongoing, so everyone can join in and help make the dream of 250 children from the Dnipropetrovsk region come true. Here is a link to the project page.