On 27 April, an event marking the closure of the project “МЫ ЗДЕСЬ” took place at the premises of the youth organisation “New East” in Daugavpils. The project was implemented by the Daugavpils independent media Chayka.lv in cooperation with the news portal RUS TVNET, supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Latvia.
At the closing event, the entire team was present together with supporters and some of the heroes of the storytelling project. Panel discussion at the event was run by Chayka.lv editor-in-chief Inna Plavoka, RUS TVNET editor-in-chief Erika Stashkevich, RUS TVNET journalist Raisa Smirnova, Daugavpils theatre actor Vadims Bogdanovs and one of the heroes of the project – Russian actor Artur Smolyaninov, who lives in Riga and is considered a “foreign agent” in his homeland. The opportunity to meet the creators of the project and the protagonists of the stories attracted a wide audience at the event.
Inna Plavoka said in her introduction that the idea of the project was based on a book in Belarusian, which collects stories of Belarusian people. Inna is convinced that emotional, personal stories are the best way to reach people who are overwhelmed by misinformation and to explain, depict the war that is still going on. The video format allows to enhance the emotional messages and makes the stories even more personal and relatable. During the project 24 stories were captured in video – 12 in Latgale and 12 in the Riga region. These are personal stories told by people who were forced to leave their homes in Ukraine, Belarus or Russia and moved to Latvia because of the war or the aggressive authoritarian regime.
One of the team members, Vadims Bogdanovs, an actor at the Daugavpils Theatre, for whom this was the first documentary journalism experience, explained his involvement in this project by inner need to provide real help, apart from the words of support on social networks. He agrees with Inna that personal human stories hold a real power against disinformation. Team of the project repeatedly noted the difficulty to get refugees from Ukraine and Belarus to share their stories. To their view, this only proves the value of this project and gives a hint of realization about the seriousness and complex conditions in the affected countries that might be hard to grasp living in peace in Latvia.
After sharing their stories in the project, some protagonists had received threatening letters and a lot of negative comments on the internet. However, for most participants their courage paid off. They gained comfort in feeling heard and understood. They realized that they were not alone – they met like-minded people, gained friends and received practical assistance. Highlight of the project closing event was a performance by the actor Artur Smolyaninov. He performed three of songs – “Hypnos”, “After” and “Stop the War”.
The Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Latvia supports the media platform Chayka.lv because it stands in the guard for democratic values in Latgale – most Eastern region of Latvia. The values such as the freedom of expression, independent media and free access to reliable information. The Nordic-Latvian cooperation aimed at strengthening democratic values and promoting civic engagement dates back more than thirty years. The idea behind it is to join forces for building a strong, socially responsible society, capable to withstand challenges of any kinds and laying a foundation for a better future for us all.
“МЫ ЗДЕСЬ” project stories are available on YouTube or on the website Chayka.lv.
As the "МЫ ЗДЕСЬ" storytelling project draws to a close, Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Latvia continues to support the Latvian-language version of this media outlet – Chayka Latviski. It was launched in mid-April this year and during the testing phase is currently only available on Facebook.
The media outlets in Latvian and in Russian: LSM.lv, RUS.LSM.lv, RUS TVNET have also spread the word about the project “МЫ ЗДЕСЬ” and about the closing event.
Photo: Valija Platace, Chayka.lv
