Full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine has shocked our society. Anxiety and worry brought a never-before-seen desire to help those fleeing war: offering their time or skills, necessary items, places to stay or services.

It is good to see that it is possible to help through civic initiatives and that it is encouraged in Estonia. The desire to help mostly comes from the heart. Unfortunately, among good people there are those who wish to exploit people in a vulnerable situation.

It also happened when waves of Ukrainian refugees arrived in Estonia. Thousands of offers to help were sent to the Estonian Refugee Council in winter and spring.
Among these were requests that were displeasing to see.

Of course, those exploitative offers only formed a tiny portion of all offers. But there were enough of them to call it a shameful trend. How else would you name an offer of free accommodation where you’d have to help around the house all day round? Or when they offer hints that they might integrate a female refugee themselves, or even blatantly state their preference for a refugee’s gender and age, saying
they only wish to help a young and beautiful woman? What made us particularly stunned is that those people didn’t even see anything wrong with what they were doing.

We wish to bring to you those bitter incidents that the employees and volunteers at the Estonian Refugee Council came across every day. We also wish to give you some food for thought on how we see refugees. Society tends to forget that refu-
gees are regular people who found themselves in an extreme situation.

For this exhibition, we chose a substantial selection of cases that reached us over the phone, e-mail or website this winter and spring.

Art director: Anrike Piel
Artists: Anrike Piel, Valdek Laur, Nastya Lysenko, Jarõna Ilo.

The exhibition is created by NGO Estonian Refugee Council.
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.