My name is Ekaterina Mirzoeva. I am from Polotsk, but after the events of 2020 I had to leave Belarus. For five years now, since the spring of 2021, I have been living in Poland, in Poznań. I don’t like to complain, but now I am in a situation where I really need support to get through recovery after a heart attack.
In 2020, I was part of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s initiative group because I wanted to use the opportunity to convey my thoughts to people. In Belarus, I did not live well, but I saw that many people lived very poorly, so I decided for myself that I would speak for those who were worse off than me. I never called for the overthrow of the authorities or violence, but I openly said that it is impossible to live on a retirement: I went to rallies and meetings in the Vitebsk region, took part in the election campaign, and helped as much as I could.
When people began to be arrested, I started collecting care packages, took them to the temporary detention centre, and collected food packages for the families of detainees. Inside, there was this kind of “engine”: I lived on adrenaline. I slept three to four hours, was busy all the time to help the guys in detention, to be useful. Then the “friendly chats” with law enforcers began, increased attention.
I continued to speak and write, and I began receiving threats. I won’t go into unnecessary detail, but the message was simple – “shut your mouth”! I was not afraid for myself, I was already over 60 then, but I understood that all of us who were active would not be left alone.
At the beginning of 2021, word of mouth brought news that if I did not leave, they would take me. On February 19, 2021, I flew from Minsk to Kyiv. At that time, it seemed that I just needed to lie low for a couple of months and I could return home. It didn’t work out.
Then I moved to Poland and applied for international protection. It was hard not because I had to start everything from scratch, but because of the resentment: I had worked all my life in my country, had done nothing wrong, and this government forced me to leave. But resentment changes nothing. I learned the language and found a job as a nanny. The work is hard, but humanly good, even though I had to get up early, travel across the whole city, work eight hours, sometimes more. And I managed. In life, I am not afraid of work: I worked as a nanny, was a caregiver, baked culinary products, worked on the land, handled everything on my own.
But my health does not allow me to live and work as before. The first heart attack was back in 2009. In 2022, there was a suspected second heart attack, and I was hospitalized. And on January 5 of this year, the second heart attack happened. After it, I can no longer work physically as before. Weakness, limitations: I cannot lift heavy things or make sudden movements. The simplest things become a problem. I can’t even hold a mug – it falls out of my hands. Now I am working very hard on my recovery: I do exercises, strictly follow all the doctors’ recommendations, but it does not happen quickly.
Right now, the main problem is housing. In January and February, I have been living in debt. I was lucky that the landlords are good people: they are not evicting me and are waiting, but the debt is growing. I am not asking for a “comfortable life” – I need to close the financial gap after the heart attack: to pay rent, for medications, and basic expenses while I recover enough to be able to earn again.
The retirement benefits from Belarus that I am trying to arrange involve a lot of bureaucracy, not something that happens “overnight.” But I need to live now. And right now, I simply have nothing to pay for housing. That is why I am asking for support. As soon as I feel a bit better, I will be able to work again and support myself. But I need to get through the moment when my health has failed me, and rent and daily life have not been canceled.
Fundraising goal
€3000
€1700 – rent. Debt for the winter and several months ahead
€1300 – medications and food while I recover