KURENIVKA
“Build some fun for the children”
On the second day of the full-scale invasion, Yaro wrote to Steven Raspa of Burning Man from Odesa, where he and Ella were at the time. As director of a property management company, Yaro was turning basements into bomb shelters for the 1,500 families in the buildings his company ran, with backup power and backup communications. The Burning Man experience, he wrote, turned out to be useful.
Steven wrote back: “Try to build some fun wherever possible for the children — and everyone.” Ukrainian Burners also launched the Refugee Support Initiative, connecting burners worldwide with people who had to leave home.
A small country for children
That sentence became the year. Dima Pavlenko's company had leased a stretch of forest by a lake in Kolochava, in the Carpathians, and Kurenivka built its camp there instead of in the desert: a free summer camp for children affected by the war, and their mothers. There were kids of soldiers, including a family where both parents served, and mothers whose husbands were at the front.
A rave would have been wrong that year. So there was a DJ school run by volunteers from Zhytomyr, kayaking lessons, tents, cooking on the fire and hikes. Families only had to reach Kolochava; the camp met them at the station and took care of everything else. When some couldn't afford train tickets, Kurenivka bought them.
It was built by the Ten Principles, commercial-free. And during Burn week, on the same dates as the Burn, a small effigy burned in the Carpathians.
Were you here in 2022?
New names appear after a quick check by the camp.
More from 2022
