This winter has been the hardest. Since mid-January, our building has had no heating. Temperatures dropped brutally low. Most nights, there is an air attack. We sleep on a mattress in the hallway — no windows. Nothing saves you from a direct hit, but walls protect you from shattered glass. What hurts most is stolen time. My son believes good overcomes evil in the end. We try to live by that belief, even when we are tired. I work with families of prisoners of war. We work closely with families — especially parents — whose loved ones were killed in Russian attacks. Children killed in their sleep, entire families lost in a moment: these are not isolated tragedies, but part of a pattern of unlawful, indiscriminate violence. We are compiling years of evidence. Through these families, we humanize the war’s toll and spotlight the urgent need for international justice. Working like this is hard. But this is exactly why we must be here. Human rights work cannot be outsourced... It requires living under the same conditions as the people whose testimonies you record. Talking to people who have lost everything feels like a strange form of home — our experiences overlap. We understand each other without long explanations. We hug. For us, Amnesty International is a gateway to the world, a way to speak about what we experience, even when global attention shifts elsewhere. We are not a passing story. We are people. We have rights. Amnesty gives us a platform, support, institutional weight, and the trust it carries in its name. It allows our testimonies to travel beyond our borders, to reach decision-makers, journalists, and ordinary people who might otherwise never hear them. If you want to read the rest of Lera’s story, click here » Women have always been at the forefront of movements to defend human rights in their communities. Women also bear the brunt of humanitarian crises and authoritarian crackdowns. As we honor International Women’s Day, let’s lock arms in solidarity with Lera and all women who bravely persevere despite threats to their rights and their lives — especially in the face of armed conflict. Until midnight tomorrow, your gift goes 5X as far to advocate for the rights of women and girls, and ensure that human rights defenders everywhere can carry out their work in safety. | 
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