Help for former political prisoner in the TUT.BY case Maria Novik

Help for for­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­er in the TUT.BY case, Maria Novik, whose son was killed in the war in Ukraine.

My name is Maria Novik, I am a for­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­er in the TUT.BY case. At the com­pa­ny, I was deputy chief accoun­tant. Until the last moment, I did not ask for help – I thought I would man­age. But over time, it only became hard­er.

I was forced to come to Poland in Decem­ber 2024, although I want­ed to stay in Belarus until the last moment. But I start­ed receiv­ing strange calls from hid­den num­bers, and every morn­ing some­one would knock loud­ly on my door for a long time, demand­ing that I open it. And since at that time my son was already at the war in Ukraine, the per­se­cu­tion could have been con­nect­ed not only to my case but also to this fact.

My son went as a vol­un­teer fight­er in the autumn of 2024. Of course, like any moth­er, I tried to dis­suade him, but he was an inde­pen­dent, intel­li­gent, and hon­est per­son with a well-formed opin­ion on this mat­ter. And I always respect­ed my son’s deci­sions.

After arriv­ing in Poland, I tried to legal­ize my stay and adapt in a for­eign coun­try. And I would have man­aged all this, because I am a strong per­son. Prison did not break me, exile did not break me – the war that took my son broke me.

He passed away six months ago, killed while car­ry­ing out a com­bat mis­sion. In these real­i­ties, I try to live. Only help­ing oth­ers as much as I can keeps me going.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, my finan­cial sit­u­a­tion is now dif­fi­cult: a lot of mon­ey was spent on the trip to Ukraine for my son’s funer­al. The sav­ings I had are run­ning out. But I can­not get a job yet, as the legal­iza­tion process is still ongo­ing. Against the back­drop of stress, my health has wors­ened – prob­lems with my back, endocrinol­o­gy, and gyne­col­o­gy began.

There­fore, I am ask­ing for help to sur­vive this dif­fi­cult moment of my life.

Fundraiser amount:
€3500

€1500 – rent for 3 months
€1000 – treat­ment for the most urgent health issues
€1000 – food and dai­ly expens­es

HELP MARIA