Illustration: #OlehGryshchenko
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At the age of seven, Iryna was left without her father and uncle. Both died due to an attack by Russians: the uncle in 2014 in the east of Ukraine, and the father in March 2022 in Mykolaiv Oblast. Her father, the hero Oleksandr, was 32 years old. Ira knows that they protected her and the entire country from the invaders, and wants to help those who continue to defend Ukraine to survive.
Because of this, the girl creates wreaths from artificial flowers and sells them at charity fairs and on social networks. One product costs as little as 100 hryvnas (about 2.5 dollars). However, Ira makes so many of them that she has already managed to fundraise for two cars for the military and two thermal imagers. While the collection for the third car is in progress, Iryna has already begun to dream bigger. She wants to buy some kind of weapon with the money for wreaths next time, preferably a Javelin. And in order to understand where and how to buy it, Ira is going to write to the leadership of Ukraine with a request for help.
The cost of the Javelin doesn’t seem to scare Ira at all: the girl is ready to make wreaths almost non-stop, just to help the defenders.