65 km from Chernihiv is the small town of Mena, whose unique cultural heritage can be learned about thanks to the initiative of several caring women.

In 2017, Victoria Nerush and Inna Dudko joined forces and founded the NGO “Union of Women of the Minority” around the implementation of the “Tourist Minority” project. The project was based on bicycle tours to nearby villages, as well as bus routes for tourists who came from other cities. Contemplating the beauty and uniqueness of their native land in architecture, customs and language, constantly interacting with the local population, Victoria and Inna decided that it was necessary to perpetuate, preserve and popularize all these achievements for future generations. Therefore, the public organization took up the activities of preserving and popularizing cultural heritage not only in Mena, but also in the villages of the community around the city.

One of the first projects implemented by the “Union of Women of the Menshchyna” together with the Mensh Museum of Local Lore named after V.F. Pokotyl and local historians was the board game “Search for the Treasure of Hnat Sakhnovsky” in 2019 with the support of the “Ukrainian Cultural Fund”. This is a local history game that collects information about famous figures, architectural monuments, natural objects and significant events of the former Mensh district. A member of the public organization and a resident of Mensh, Viktoria Tsarenko, notes that thanks to this game, adults and children can learn a lot of interesting things about the Mensh region and things that even local residents do not know:

“Our community has many features – incredible nature (forests, rivers, fields), a large number of wooden architecture (mainly old wooden churches), hospitable and creative people (a large number of groups, usually song groups). We want to preserve, first of all, authentic architecture, because this is what, unfortunately, is destroyed over time, often due to the whims of the community residents. We are also working to preserve the local dialect, which differs from any other with its interesting words. We strive to preserve traditions, songs, rituals, which, unfortunately, are gradually disappearing, but which are unique and not inherent in any other regions in Ukraine.”

After the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, when it became clear that the Ukrainian language is important and timely, activists created the game “Menski govirki”, which collected 80 unique words. 200 people joined the project, a survey was conducted on social networks and expeditions were carried out to three villages, where 7 respondents were interviewed live. In total, the team was able to record about 400 words.

“Menshchyna is a part of the eastern left-bank Polissya with a wonderful cultural and historical heritage, one of the elements of which is the wooden decoration of houses. Despite the significant losses of residential architecture during the Second World War, it was possible to preserve examples of estates with exquisite carved decor of facades and windows.

During the military operations of 2022, fortunately, the occupier quickly and without significant destruction and damage passed through Menshchyna. But there are other threats: firstly, a repeated invasion of the enemy is possible, due to which the threat of destruction and damage is higher, because this time the Armed Forces of Ukraine will resist, so there will be fighting on the territory of the community. Also, no less significant is the threat from the owners of the houses themselves, who do not understand the value of the house in which they live. They thoughtlessly rebuild, insulate the facades, destroying the decor. "Not everyone who sheathes walls with siding or foam understands that the wood underneath rots and quickly deteriorates," emphasizes Victoria Tsarenko.

To record and preserve samples of wooden decoration, the “Union of Women of the Minority Region” in partnership with the Mena Local History Museum implemented the “Wooden EYES of the Minority Region” project from June to August 2023. The activists managed to photograph 120 samples of wooden decoration in 5 settlements of the community and in the city of Mena, digitize them and put them on the map. In addition, the initiators of the project created 100 copies of puzzles and 500 pcs. coloring books with the best collected samples of wooden decoration, magnets and shoppers with their elements. Victoria says that the main goal of the “Wooden EYES of the Minority Region” project is to preserve and perpetuate the wooden architecture of the region, thanks to which, in the event of destruction of buildings during military operations or other factors, it will be possible to fully reproduce them based on the photographed samples.

“During the expedition, we conducted explanatory work with the owners of the houses about preventing destruction and the need to preserve the wooden decoration. After the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainians began to rethink the value of culture more, not only in big cities, but also in small towns and villages. They are beginning to understand that what is valuable is ours, what has passed down from the people. And this must be protected. Because before, there was an emphasis on Russian or foreign culture. On everything that is played on the radio and television. Our own was rejected as something of lesser value. Because of this, we lost a large layer of songs, traditions and crafts.

Interest in our work is increasing, but not enough. We want more people to join and be interested in our native cultural heritage. We will continue to record, preserve and popularize what we have so that even more people learn about the Minority. This is important for us, because we love the city where we live. We want it to flourish, so that people come here, and not flee to larger cities or abroad. Because it is in such small towns that our Ukrainian traditions, cultural heritage and language are concentrated and live. It is here that you can touch the past, find your roots, communicate with living carriers of Ukrainian traditions and customs.”

The residents of the Minority, who are not indifferent to the Ukrainian cultural heritage, plan to continue the project “Wooden Eyes of the Minority”. They also strive to implement new ones related to the preservation of mosaics at bus stops in the region, with the fixation and preservation of unique wedding rituals of the Minority, and also want to create “Velodacha” as a place-center for preserving the traditions of their native land.

The article was prepared within the framework of the project of the Agency for Private Initiative Development  "Promoting Youth Civic Participation in Decentralized Communities" with co-financing from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).