Embroidered with pain

International organizations prove multiple cases of sexual violence committed by Russian soldiers against civilians during the war in Ukraine. But only a small part of survivors witnessed, most of them are still keeping their silence. Being deeply traumatized, they can’t talk about their experience at all. Not talking means not getting help that could make the process of healing easier. And also it means – the offenders won’t be punished.

First we launched a project Dali ye that provides Ukrainians who survived after sexual violence with important information for their recovery. For the next step we had to communicate the message: recovery is possible, just start talking to get help.

But how to do it in a gentle and smart way which won’t hurt or re-traumatize anybody?

We created 5 stories about 5 women survivors, translated the words into ornaments and embroidered 5 national Ukrainian cloths – “rushnyks”. Each rushnyk tells the story about the woman who suffered from a sexual violence during the war but found the courage to ask for help and now making her first steps on the way to recovery.

The project was made in collaboration with psychologists, artist, ethnographist and embroidery masters. Psychologists who work with survivors shared with us the experiences of their clients which formed the basis of the stories (all the characters are fictional, but the facts are real). The artist with the help of ethnographist transformed the stories into ornaments composed of Ukrainian traditional elements and new ones, originally created to reflect this new reality of war. The team of embroidery masters embodied 5 ornaments in 5 rushnyks. And then the embroidered stories appeared at the site https://vyshyti-bolem.in.ua/en/#home

Rushnyk is not just something beautiful. It’s a subject of national rite, a part of all important events of human life: birth, wedding, death, healing, etc. And also it’s an amulet that protects you on your way to somewhere or something. This is exactly what we want from our project – to support survivors and encourage them to make their first steps to recovery.