“It’s a hard slog”: how a mother of a large family from Cherkasy region is protecting the rear and fundraising for an infrared thermal camera for her husband

Diana Krechetova — Tuesday, 26 July 2022

Tetiana Brychka from the urban-type village of Drabiv in Cherkasy Oblast is protecting the rear while her husband defends Ukraine at the frontline. Not only does this woman raise four children and take care of a rather large household, but she is also fundraising for an infrared thermal camera for her loved one.

Tetiana spoke to Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia who is helping her on this mission.

Her husband, Viktor, worked as a combine harvester operator prior to the full-scale war. He volunteered to go to the front as soon as Russia attacked Ukraine. Tetiana admits that she asked him to wait a little.

"My husband left on 25 February. He took a military service record book and went to the military commissariat. He said: ‘I am going to defend [us], I will not be sitting at home.’ I asked him not to go just yet since we have four children, but he replied that he will go and he will fight," she explained.

Tetiana stated that they equipped her husband themselves: they bought a bulletproof vest, helmet, uniform and trainers with their own savings. However, later Viktor was given both a bulletproof vest and a helmet, so now there are "spare" ones at home.

Now Tetiana is making a substantial effort to raise money for an infrared thermal camera for her husband. This is her second attempt to buy an expensive device.

"The first time I started fundraising for an infrared thermal camera, I couldn't buy it. I raised only UAH 22,000. Instead, I used these funds to buy three monoculars for the boys," the woman says.

Once Tetiana realised that she would not manage to raise the necessary sum on her own, she reached out to her husband's boss for help. 

The latter promised to buy an infrared camera himself and advised her to use the 22,000 she had raised for something else. Tetiana says that she immediately ordered digital night vision devices that very same day: the military personnel also needed such monoculars.

She waited a month for the promised infrared camera from the director of the company where Viktor had worked, but it never arrived.

"When I called and asked, the director said that as long as my husband was not on the front line (and he was stationed 15 kilometres away from the Belarusian border), they would not provide anything," the woman recalls.

Tetiana was disappointed, but not disheartened. She started to raise funds for an infrared camera again with renewed vigour. She does everything she can to achieve this purpose:

"I have shared requests on social media, addressed my friends and acquaintances. I also sell flowers from my garden and contribute my own funds to the fundraiser for an infrared thermal camera. I do not do this [professional flower farming - ed. ] at all. I grow them [flowers-ed.] as a labour of love. My fellow ‘flower-ladies’ also sell flowers and send the money to me."

Tetiana also asked for help from large charitable organisations. In particular, she wrote to the Serhii Prytula and Oleksii Osker foundations. However, she did not receive any replies.

"Then I noticed the ‘little’ volunteers and started contacting them. Two of them responded. These were Olha Tymchenko and Oleksandr Kosian. They started sharing my posts and specified that I am not a fraud, but a person collecting funds for her husband."

"The local ‘white house’ [authorities of the local amalgamated territorial community - ed.] helped me with a backpack and tactical gloves for my husband, some medicines," the woman says.

Nataliia Kolodonos, Tetiana’s sister, helps her and has engaged all her friends to "take up the cause".

"We knock on every door and it still feels like a hard slog," the woman stresses.

Viktor's wife has currently managed to raise UAH 63,000 for an infrared thermal camera, which may save his life.

"We are still short of UAH 20,000. I would be happy to raise at least UAH 10,000 more. I can contribute the rest," she says.

Tetiana noted that the most generous contribution to date has been made by a mother of a fallen soldier.

"She noticed that I was collecting funds. She took my phone number, called me and offered help. This woman donated a large sum of UAH 30,000. I said that I could not take this much money. Especially given that she lost her son. And she answered that it would be easier for her if she helped the boys. She said she knows my husband," the woman says.

Currently, an infrared thermal camera is the key and so far the only goal of fundraising. However, Tetiana does not rule out that, if necessary, she will continue to do everything to help her husband while holding up the rear.

"And if he needs nothing, then I help people who raise funds for military needs," she says.

Tetiana is a real heroine, even though she does not wear a military uniform and does not carry a weapon in her hands. She is raising children and taking care of a large household:

"I’ve got a lot of work. I live in a village. I have four children, three cows, five pigs, ducks, chickens, rabbits, and a vegetable garden. I also sell dairy products which I produce at the market. This is how I earn a living."

Tetiana admits that it has been very difficult lately: both mentally and physically. However, she does not intent to fall into despair:

"It's very difficult, but everything will be fine. Sometimes my strength ebbs away, but I tell myself: ‘Hey, pick yourself up and get moving, because ‘winter will ask what you have been doing all summer’."