Ukraine: Communicating through local eyes and ears
Yuliia Trofimova is a Ukrainian journalist working as a communications officer with the MSF communications team in Ukraine. She often documents MSF’s emergency response to mass casualties and air strikes – all while trying to reconcile life before the full-scale war with the present. In this video she describes this important role bearing witness to the lived experience of people on the ground.
Transcript
“My name is Yuliia Trofimova. I am a communications officer with Médecins Sans Frontières. I've always liked being in the centre of events since childhood. I decided maybe in the eighth grade, that I should become a journalist.”
File footage of Yuliia speaking to camera on television: At 9am on January 15, we report from the place where a missile hit a residential building, the teams are still removing the rubble. The rescuers avoid using heavy equipment...
“And in 2022, with the start of the full-scale invasion I had a feeling that every journalist turned into a war correspondent to some extent, because we were covering events in our city.
“And now in Médecins Sans Frontières, I basically continue to be the person who listens to all these stories, because bearing witness is one of the most important goals of our communication.
“I see how our doctors communicate with patients on the frontline. I see our ambulances taking people from the frontline areas hospital, transporting them to a safer place where they are provided with medical treatment and specialised care.
“It is also very important to me that we work in places where very few other volunteer organisations dare to go, because it's often dangerous. If there are people there, we have to help them, we have to support them, they have to know that they are not alone.”
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