My name is Natallia Hovarova, I am 43 years old. Before the events of 2020, I lived with my family in Orsha, worked as a hairdresser, and raised three children.
In 2020, when there was first hope for political change in Belarus, and then it collapsed, I took it very hard. It was unbearably painful to read about detentions, arrests, beatings, dismissals, and persecution of people who disagreed with the election results. Reacting to what was happening, I repeatedly left comments in various messengers condemning representatives of the authorities and law enforcers for their unlawful and inhumane actions against their own citizens.
I never thought, reading the news, that I would have to endure the same nightmare political prisoners go through.
In autumn 2024, I was detained at my workplace by officers of the anti-extremism unit and taken for interrogation. During the interrogation, they threatened me and my family, hurled insults. Under pressure, I was forced to record a forced confession video.
Two weeks later, which my children and I spent in fear, I was arrested and charged under two “political” articles, and a criminal case was opened against me. My property was inventoried during a search. I spent three and a half months in detention under inhumane conditions: without warm clothing or hygiene items, under a ban on food care packages and visits from my loved ones. I was subjected to humiliating strip searches, forced to remove all my clothing, repeatedly placed in a punishment cell for no reason, and denied medical assistance when I needed it.
After receiving a sentence of 4 years of confinement in an open correctional facility, along with a fine and an order to pay compensation to three “victims,” I tried to fight back by filing an appeal. Realizing that the sentence would remain unchanged and that my children would be left without their mother, we made the decision to leave Belarus.
With the help of BYSOL, we were urgently evacuated from Belarus to Poland and are currently staying in a shelter for former political prisoners.
My children and I are in desperate need of your help: having been left with nothing in a foreign country, we simply have no means to live. I am asking for your support to help us get through this initial period, while I look for housing, find a job, get the children into school, and provide them with clothes.
We are deeply grateful for any help and support!
Fundraising goal
€4000
€2200 for rent during the first three months (plus deposit)
€800 for clothing, footwear for the children, and school supplies
€700 for food and basic expenses
€300 for Polish language courses