Those who claim that the belarussians came to terms with the regime of the usurper Lukashenka or returned to their peaceful existence in Belarus are either deeply mistaken or they aim to mislead others. The belarussians still carry on fighting for the truth and for justice, risking their own well-being as well as their freedom, and „Nash Dom“ day-to-day keeps supporting those, who suffer from the government‘s actions. Today we want to share the results of our collective work in april 2021.

– In april 2021 the International Centre for civil initiatives „Our House“ supported 43 belarussians, suffering from repressions, in various ways: by paying for the services of a lawyer, by supporting with food, refunding fines and state fees, providing payment for the stay in detention and temporary prison, support in coordination, psychological support and food deliveries for those imprisoned. With some of those affected by the tyranny of Lukashenka we did and publish interviews (for security reasons mostly anonymously). In the beginning of april we published the story of the Kobryn citizen Margarita Kosobutskaya and her husband Vitaly Zhuk on our website. Vitaly dared to complain about the illegal actions of the police and openly to express his outrage about the falsification of the elections in 2020 and therefore landed in LTP.

– “Our House” was co-organizer of different actions of solidarity with belarussians, which took place in april in Vilnius: the Memorial Day for the victims of the terrorist attack in the Minsk metro (Sunday 11 April), an action in support of Belsat journalists Yekaterina Andreeva and Daria Chultsova (Friday 23 April), the birthday of Maria Kolesnikova (Saturday 24 April) and the Memorial Day for the victims of the Chernobyl tragedy (Monday 26 April). The actions on the 11^th and 26^th of April also involved the actors of the theatres of Grodno, whom “Our House” helped in the beginning of March 2021 to leave Belarus and get settled in Vilnius. The actors demonstrated performances based on the memories of eyewitnesses of the Chernobyl disaster and the terrorist attack in the Minsk metro to the belarusians and lithuanians who had gathered at the action.

– On April 16, the head of “Our House” Olga Karach, together with the representative of the Belarusian initiative Oleg Moiseev and the Lithuanian public figure Valdas Bartkevichus, met with Tomas Vytautas Raskavichus, the head of the parliamentary committee on human rights of the Lithuanian parliament to discuss the current situation and urgent problems of Belarusians forced to flee for political reasons from their own country and establish their life in Lithuania, and the Lithuanian side’s options to effectively help solving this problems. Olga Karach also told the Lithuanian MP in detail about the problem of torture and modern slavery in places of detention in Belarus. Mr. Raskavichus was informed about gender-based repressions against women in Belarus and how they differ from repressions against men.

– On the youtube channel “Nash Dom TV” and on Olga Karach’s personal telegram channel, 10 videos of the “Special Comment” section were released in April, in which Olga answered topical questions about what is happening in Belarus and on the side of the democratic forces. On April 17, Olga Karach held a stream in which she spoke about preparations for Day X and possible scenarios for future events in Belarus. Our “Lamp Editor” Slava devoted two live broadcasts to teaching Belarusians how to communicate with each other in a situation where there is no Internet.

– On April 18 Olga Karach took part in a solidarity action for the Ukrainian people against the Kremlin’s aggression, and on April 21 in another solidarity action with the Russian politician and public figure, and henceforth – political prisoner, Alexei Navalny. “It is already clear that democracy will come to Belarus in one way or another through democracy in Russia. Belarusians support Russians in their struggle for democracy and human rights. We are against war. We are for Russia to become a free democratic country. Freedom for Alexei Navalny, freedom for all Russians and Belarusians! ”

The International Centre for civil initiatives „Our House“ would like to thank all employees, volunteers and partners of the organization for their effective joint work and project support in April 2021. We continue to prepare for Day X and do our best to support the Belarusians.

Long live Belarus!