The start of the Ukraine War, while not fully unexpected, was a shock to people around the world. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia seemed such a foreign event, yet was earth-shattering in the magnitude. I wanted to educate myself on the conflict and also spread awareness of it; while I might not have been able to make any direct signifcamt change on the conflict, I thought that the least I could do was spread awareness.
That’s when I discovered the perfect opportunity to do so: The Ukraine Bloom project. It was a perfect opportunity to spread said awareness; it allowed me to become involved within the production of a video that intervierwed citizens within Ukraine experiencing the effects of the war firsthand, and be able to finalize it in a published video that can be used to spread awareness.
I signed up for the opportunity immediately, and was given my role as a writer for the questions and how the video would be edited. I was confident in this job as writing was one aspect I had significant amounts of experience with in my academic career. I was determined to try my best to convey the message while not making it overdramatic; I thought that the conflict Ukraine faced did not need to be embellished further to sell its gravity and any overdramatization of it would only lessen the actual weight the video carried.
I pitched my script to the team of editors and interviewers I was working with, and they decided to use it within the video. After a couple more months of processes, the video was produced to the form you can watch in this blog.
This experience was truly valuable; I felt that for once, I was able to make a project that was small in scale but impactful to many. It gave me the confidence that with what I learn, I can make the world better.