‘Home, reborn’

For Zorie Ganiyeva, the start of the full-scale invasion felt like history repeating itself.

A Crimean Tatar, she grew up with stories of her ancestors’ deportation. In 2022, she found she was facing displacement  herself. On 18 May, the day the tragedy of the Crimean Tatar deportation is commemorated, Zorie officially registered as an internally displaced person near Kyiv. She had just fled her home in Chornobaivka, Kherson Oblast, prioritising the safety of her two young daughters as the situation in the region rapidly deteriorated.

Even before she left, Zorie had been moving between Kherson and Chornobaivka while the area was under occupation, continuing to work and support her community despite the significant risks. 

“I had to go back and see what was happening,” she recalls. 

During those months, she stayed deeply involved by coordinating information, supporting communication through official channels, and delivering essential items to the community whenever possible. Each trip through Russian checkpoints carried an immense risk, but her commitment to her neighbours outweighed her fear. 

“It was dangerous, but I needed to be there,” she says.

Chornobaivka was eventually liberated in November 2022, but for Zorie and many others, the danger did not end with the arrival of Ukrainian forces. The area remains under constant attacks, making it unsafe for families to return permanently. While Zorie now lives with her daughters in Kyiv Oblast, she continues to travel back to Chornobaivka to lead its recovery efforts. Her daughters, meanwhile, still dream of returning to the life they knew. 

“They miss it very much,” she says.

Today, Zorie leads municipal initiatives focused on rebuilding the community from the ground up. Her work includes restoring damaged infrastructure, improving access to basic services, and creating the conditions necessary to encourage people to stay.

For her, the goal is not only to bring people back, but to ensure that those who never left have a real reason to remain: “I want people to see that there is a future here,” she says.

Together with international partners, including the United Nations Development Programme and Denmark, the community has been able to move beyond emergency response toward long-term recovery. Projects such as restoring water networks and developing community spaces are vital parts of this process. 

Zorie also works tirelessly to attract new support, representing her community at national and international events to build partnerships that can bring lasting change.

For her, this work is deeply personal and rooted in her heritage: “My people have survived so much,” she says. “I have to be strong.” 

Despite the ongoing challenges, she continues to return to Chornobaivka, holding on to the belief that one day it will be a place where her family and others can live safely again.