Exiled journalists launch fundraisers to cover medical and relocation expenses

Two Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists in exile are cur­rent­ly run­ning fundrais­ing cam­paigns to raise mon­ey to help them face the chal­lenges of forced migra­tion.

Ali­ak­san­dr Kornyshau, edi­tor of the Viteb­sky Kuri­er News pub­li­ca­tion, is seek­ing help for reha­bil­i­ta­tion after hip joint replace­ment surgery.

Ali­ak­san­dr Kornyshau. Pho­to: bysol.org

Ali­ak­san­dr is an inde­pen­dent media jour­nal­ist and pub­lic fig­ure. Recent­ly he was includ­ed in the “extrem­ist list” of the Min­istry of Inte­ri­or. He man­aged to escape to Ukraine and, after the war start­ed, to Poland. After the emer­gency reset­tle­ment, his health dete­ri­o­rat­ed. Doc­tors diag­nosed him with necro­sis of the head of the hip joint. The only treat­ment was a com­plete joint replace­ment.

“There’s a long road to recov­ery ahead, then anoth­er surgery, then more rehab. All of this will be cov­ered by insur­ance. But there’s one big prob­lem: the treat­ment will stretch for at least a year — a time when I will be immo­bile. Maybe when I feel bet­ter, I’ll be able to work part-time, but I can’t be sure of that, because recov­ery drains my ener­gy. I need your help real­ly bad,” explains Ali­ak­san­dr Kornyshau.

The fundrais­er amount is €10,000, which will be used for basic expens­es: hous­ing, food, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and small house­hold expens­es.

Sup­port Ali­ak­san­dr Kornyshau here.

Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, doc­u­men­tary pho­tog­ra­ph­er Ali­ak­san­dr Vasiukovich is seek­ing finan­cial assis­tance to com­mence a new phase of his life and resume his work in exile. He has also ini­ti­at­ed a fundrais­ing cam­paign on the BySol plat­form.

Ali­ak­san­dr Vasiukovich. Pho­to: bysol.org

Ali­ak­san­dr Vasiukovich has been shoot­ing for inde­pen­dent media since 2010. He cov­ered the 2010 post-elec­tion protests, the 2011 “silent” protests, the 2020 elec­tions, and the war in Ukraine. In Jan­u­ary 2024, Vasiukovich was sen­tenced to three years of restrict­ed free­dom for alleged­ly par­tic­i­pat­ing in the 2020 protests he was cov­er­ing. Fear­ing fur­ther per­se­cu­tion, Ali­ak­san­dr left Belarus in April 2024.

He is hop­ing to raise €3,700. The mon­ey is need­ed to make life arrange­ments in exile.

“This is what I’m aim­ing to col­lect. It’ll help me cov­er hous­ing and gro­ceries while I’m wait­ing for the deci­sion on my pro­tec­tion case. I’ll also use some of the funds to get my motor­cy­cle ready for a trip to the front line in Ukraine, where I’m plan­ning to keep doc­u­ment­ing the war and the impact of Russ­ian aggres­sion,” shares Ali­ak­san­dr Vasiukovich.

Check out the fundrais­er link.