America House Community Stories: Mariia
This is the story of persistence and confidence of Mariia Shuvalova, Window to Success 2022 program participant and Fulbright alumna, who told us about the tactical boots that led her to fundraising, anatomical body armor for women and why Ukrainians will win.
Mariia is working on the information front, giving interviews to international media on war activities in Ukraine while participating in a fundraising campaign gathering supplies for women in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
How did you start volunteering since the full-scale invasion?
It all started from a pair of 45 size boots for my cousin. In the first days of the full-scale war, I left for Khmelnytskyi region, and he stayed to defend Kyiv in the Territorial Defence. After a few days, he needed new boots, so I called my friend Ira who was in Kyiv. It turned out that her friend also wears size 45 , and he was ready to give his tactical boots. Thus, we managed to pass them on, and my friend met my brother. After that, Ira called me:
— They need 20 more bulletproof vests and helmets. How much does it cost?
— This is about 300 thousand hryvnias.
— Do we have that kind of money?
— No.
— Do we know where to buy bulletproof vests and helmets?
— We don't know.
— Well, let’s start a fundraising campaign?
— Let’s do it!
And just like that, we decided that we would do it. Then, on the 4th day of the war, ideas about the possible and the impossible rested somewhere in another universe, not in the minds of Ukrainians. Even then, everyone understood that the Ukrainian military destroyed all the plans of the enemy, and all Ukrainians are doing everything they can.
Now we plan to have two stable cultural volunteering projects. We decided that it is more strategic to have a cultural and educational product that can bring stable income that we can use for the needs of the army. These are our audio room on Twitter and the sale of my sister's prints. The process has evolved greatly since the boots. Boots are the base of our volunteering.
You are helping the men and women of the Armed Forces. Tell us about the needs of women in the army.
We know that there are women, 22% of them, and 18% take an active combat role, but earlier there was no one who we personally knew. Then we sent tourniquets to the assault brigade and heard that they had women. Then we asked if they needed anything. And they answered: yes, we don't have pads, we need a hairdryer, deodorant, creams. We were surprised that we hadn't asked before whether there were servicewomen in the brigades and what their needs were. Women in military wear men's clothes and shoes. They can sometimes be given men's underwear. There are female tankers, paratroopers. These are the ones we know personally now. They are very humble, they never ask for anything. You have to ask them three times if they need something, then they will really tell you. This is how we found out that there is anatomical women's body armor. If a servicewoman has big breasts, then an ordinary bulletproof vest is very painful. Our volunteer is trying to find where to buy such wests without paying an exorbanant amount
The war and this volunteering experience helped us clarify the needs of women in the military. We understand that we cannot solve them yet, but we know exactly what the processes are now.
What helps you to hold on?
Before the war I used to plan, postpone my life for later. I loved to keep everything in order. Stability was my middle name. But when a rocket falls five hundred meters from your bomb shelter, you do everything you can every second. And this has continued for 132 days now.
What charges me (and it is such a pleasure to say this) is that I am like all Ukrainians. Every friend of mine, every colleague, does the same thing as me. And you are such an average superhero. And there are 40 million of you.
There is a story by Etgar Kerett, which he wrote in order to prevent ending his life by suicide. It was said that it is not the strongest who survives. And it was not the strongest primitive man who invented the club. It was the one who needed it the most to survive. We need this victory. We don't have the image in our heads that Ukraine may not exist, so we will win, we need it very much.
AH Community Stories is a series of interviews where we tell about our friends and their stories of bravery and resilience.