Valery and Veronika Tsepkalo moved to Riga, where they work on creation of a fund to help Belarusian women who suffered from the actions of the authorities. They also help refugees from Belarus who have received political asylum in Latvia.
“We have small children, we needed Russian schools. In Poland, there are no Russian schools. In Lithuania, there is one at the embassy. But there is no enrollment. We also wanted the country to have a common border with Belarus. It was important for us – to have a feeling that we are close, that we are in the neighborhood,” said Valery Tsepkalo.
The Tsepkalo family didn’t ask for political asylum in Latvia. “We sold a house when we entered the [presidential election – Ed.] campaign. Our apartment was arrested, a vacuum cleaner and our television was arrested. Well, our bank account, of course, too.”
Veronika Tsepkalo has created a fund to help repressed women in Belarus. The organization has already been registered, an international board of directors has been assembled.
“We, our trio, have shown and proved that women have the right to vote, that women can be self-sufficient, so the goal of the foundation is to further develop women’s leadership abilities, but now the main goal is to help those repressed young woman who are in prisons,” she said.
Valery and Veronika perceive life in Latvia as a temporary and forced measure. They are currently are trying to help refugees from Belarus, there are several dozen of them in Latvia.
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“We went to a refugee camp several times. We will now actively involve them in our activities. We found an office. And, of course, we rely on the diaspora. For refugees and volunteers, so that we can work both outside Belarus and have an informational impact on the processes taking place inside the country.”
Valery Tsepkalo is the ex-head of the Belarusian Hi-Technologies Park. He tried to become a presidential candidate, but was not allowed to participate in the election and left the country in July. Veronika Tsepkalo, a representative of the joint team of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Maria Kolesnikova, left Minsk with her children on 9 August.
Source: currenttime.tv
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