I can't fall into depression

Now, we get reports, almost weekly, on how much the company helps in terms of finances and other help. There are many options: most often we donate directly through volunteers or brigades where our employees are involved. A lot of our guys have joined the territorial defense brigades are part of the army now, so we try to help them as much as we can. We have always had many initiatives, but now the focus has shifted to projects to help the military and those affected by the war.

In fact, the company has always reimbursed 50% of any employee donations.

I, myself, donate only small amounts but to lots of initiatives from small foundations to the joint account of the National Bank of Ukraine for the Ukrainian military. Among the latest, I liked the Kolo Foundation, which was established by the Ukrainian IT community. Its work really inspired me.
All of my relatives are currently under occupation, so I help them directly.

I am once again beginning to train. At some point I switched to running, biking and swimming, so now I’m into triathlons. I would have 8–10 training sessions a week for the three sports before February. Since then, I completely missed a month or a month and a half.

Now I'm trying to get back to regular training at least 4–5 times a week, and thanks to this race, I'm raising the bar a little higher. I usually choose a distance of 10 to 15 km, but this year, I ran 21 km.

But because I had to skip a lot and switch to completely different things, I had to start anew.

I like the vibe of Zoolatech, both in my team and within the company as a whole.

It's like a Ted Talk, where anyone can give a lecture on any technical topic or talk about their interests. ZoolaTalks usually take place during lunch break: they order us lunch sets, we eat, and we listen.

During one of these events, we learned how to play Japanese chess. They gave us a chessboard, and we've even got a crowd that now meets all the time to play together.

The thing I particularly enjoyed was our culinary team-building session. For one holiday during a lockdown, they brought us cooking kits; we cooked via Zoom with a chef, and then we posted what we made in the group chat. Even Covid wouldn’t ruin this vibe, because we always support each other, even from afar.

At my first ZoolaRun, I ran 3 kilometers because I just came to hang out. But even 3 km was not easy as it was hot at the Expocenter and the surface was bumpy with uphill paths. I really liked that we would always spend time together after the ZoolaRuns, have a barbecue, and play board games.

Last year our race coincided with the Kyiv Half Marathon. It was very memorable for me because I registered for the minimum distance of 4.2 km (that's 1/10th of a marathon), but ran a lot more.

I only noticed something was wrong when we ran 3 km, but there was no starting line in sight. You finish where you started, right? I thought, well, that's okay, I've never run 10 kilometers before, I can do it. But, when at the 10 km marker, there wasn't any finish line, I realized that I was running the longest distance of 21 km.

I ran for three long hours. I took a picture of a distance marker every kilometer and posted it in the work chat room—everyone was shocked.

The whole team was already cheering for me at the finish line. At last, I did it, and then we went to celebrate; I still keep my 21 km medal and a bunch of memes in our group chat.

This time, I will run 5 km. I'm getting ready for the race mentally — I plan not to mix up the start time. Although the marathon is online, Strava, where we track our race, shows how many people are running the same distance with you. It brings that feeling of unity; you want to keep moving, even when it's hard.

When my sister and I were evacuated to the Ternopil region, we were sheltered by acquaintances who had set up a relocation center in their church. Those who were going to evacuate farther west or abroad could stay there temporarily.

My sister and I took shifts to help there, too. There was a very large flow of people who were brought in from train or bus stations. You had to feed them, accommodate them, sort out other people's bedding and clean the room. I even organized waste sorting at the church. Because of the curfew, we would come in for two shifts at a time, stay overnight, and then come back the next day. Donations are, of course, important, but if you can help physically, extra hands never hurt.

In the first few days, there was almost nothing in the church. People bought their own groceries, even the displaced people brought something. And then every time I was there, I was surprised at how things were changing: humanitarian aid came from abroad; some churches donated new linens, and so on.

When I returned to Kyiv, I donated blood for the first time. I don't understand why I've never done it before. At the moment, my friends and I have a plan to weave camouflage nets. I keep myself in a good mood by donating to the army.

I knew I couldn't go to war or save lives as the doctors did, but I had money to donate. I will earn it later; if I don't help the army now, maybe there won't be a chance later.

ZoolaCare channel posts a weekly report on how the money we have made from sports and the company has allocated is spent. The areas are very different, ranging from supporting a specific unit to buying gasoline for evacuations, or food kits for people in devastated regions. Donations go to volunteers who collect money to buy a pickup truck for the army, or thermal imaging cameras, and they even tag the responsible persons. I am very pleased to see familiar names in these reports. Everyone does their part and boosts our belief in victory.

There are a lot of theories that volunteering is more for volunteers, rather than for those in need. After all, when you do something, you feel useful, you calm down, and you realize that you're involved in something important.

I've been working for Zoolatech for quite a while. I remember the time when the company was located in a friend's office in Maidan Square and was only planning to get insurance for its employees. Now we have a lot of high-level processes.

When the war started, I couldn't work. Air raid warnings went on and on for days, not like now, but accompanied by explosions. Apart from that, all the artillery battles that were taking place in and outside the city could be heard all the time. For example, Bucha is only 15 kilometers from me. 

Therefore, the routine was to eat, bathe, hang out in the basement while it was scary, and walk outside as much as possible. It was hard to concentrate, so I wanted to take a leave of absence. But I was offered a better option, and when I was ready to go back to work, they asked me 10 times if I could do it. The company was very understanding about the fact that I couldn't work, and they kept the jobs for everyone.

As soon as I came back, I got to work right away. It's even strange that nothing much has changed in the work process.

My colleagues Natasha, Tanya and I live next door, so we ran together. We agreed to meet on Saturday at 10 a.m. and go to the stadium near the house. We chose 5 km to make it easier to sync. We used to run several distances at the Expocenter, and everyone was waiting for each other. This year I tried to engage more people, but I understood that it was inconvenient, because you needed both a locker room and a shower. There were certain organizational aspects that Zoolatech took care of.

This year we agreed that we would run wherever we could in the morning and then later we would gather for a picnic or at a cafe. I run three to five times a week for four to five kilometers, so this run was a workout for me.I run three to five times a week for four to five kilometers, so this run was a workout for me. I run three to five times a week for four to five kilometers, so this run was a workout for me.

I’m also learning how to roller-skate and even if I go out for a walk, I always record it for charity. There's a lot of respect for the company when you look at the money raised from your workouts and know how it has been spent.

The winners usually choose where we transfer the money. We once donated to "Enjoying Life", which is a Kyiv-based organization. And another time, we visited senior citizens at 30 addresses and handed out food packages to them as volunteers on the eve of St. Nicholas Day; the next day, we gave presents to children in orphanages. I'd like to participate in more of these, but as long as the war is going on, all of the company's charity is for the army.

I regularly donate, especially when my colleagues raise money; I trust them one hundred percent. We have a Temp War channel, where all the donations are organized and reported. The guys buy helmets, cars, uniforms, and arrange everything themselves. One of my colleagues has a brother who works at a service station where they repair military equipment and upgrade ordinary cars to make them more militarized.

When I watch a show called Pravo na Poplavu and they say they need money, I donate a bit when I feel I can. I don't count the money, I try to donate a little at a time; even 20 USD is important if everyone donates.

I want to go on a little vacation, buy myself and my daughter bicycles and new roller skates to do figure skating. I read books, go roller skating, talk to my kid, and run. My daughter started running with me, too, and even stole my sweatpants.

I take war as a harsh reality. Terrible news is coming out, terrible things are happening. I heard everything that was happening in Bucha and Irpen. But I can't fall into depression. I have a 10-year-old daughter with whom I need to talk and go out, so life goes on.

Of course, you shouldn't devalue or lose sight of what's going on right now. But when all the people are depressed, those at the front also feel it.