Thanks to one of our American friends and fellow Postcrosser, Candace, we have some more Christmas cards for Front Line Defenders. WOW! … she took a risk to write some of her cards entirely in Ukrainian!

Well done! молодець!

And her envelope arrived in time for our August prize campaign!  [winners to be announced soon]

About writing in Ukrainian, Candace explained, “I had never written in Cyrillic before. Writing in Ukrainian Cyrillic was a challenge at first, but once I became more familiar with the letters, it got easier. I looked at it as an art project, similar to calligraphy. … Hopefully it made sense! And I used Google Translate to translate from English to Ukrainian, so I’m weary about how the message translated, but hopefully it worked out.”

Candace’s effort sure did work out fine, because her writing passed the review test at Canada Branch where we have a fluent Ukrainian on our team!

When asked what inspired her to write to Ukraine’s Defenders, Candace told us that she had “the desire to encourage others who might not have much hope right now. The war has been going on for [over] a-year-and-a-half, and anyone enduring hardship that long would struggle to maintain hope.”

Indeed, hard to imagine.

And, yet, we are told the postcards with messages of support absolutely do buoy up Defenders during hard days.

Candace’s advice to anyone hesitant about writing cards, or trying to write in Ukrainian: “Just do it and don’t overthink it. You don’t have to have the perfect card, the perfect message, or create a unique piece of art. A simple message of support brings so much joy, and the effort is totally worth it!”

Keep those cards coming! We’re still collecting Christmas cards up to the end of September.