Maryna Shevchenko is a participant of the regional contest "Woman of Donetsk Region" in 2025, nomination "The Power of Good and Unity"
Maryna Shevchenko is from Pokrovsk, a once cozy town in the beautiful Donetsk region. Her life path has always been connected with working with people. Through volunteering, cooperation, family care, and caring for those in need, Maryna combined different roles: she worked in the social sphere, ran her own business, raised two sons, and lived a normal, quiet life.
In 2019, she faced a serious challenge - a serious illness that forced her not only to fight for her own life, making incredible efforts, but also to go through a rethinking of herself. This experience taught her to listen to herself and appreciate everyday things in a new way. "Life is too valuable to put it off," she says today.
When the full-scale invasion began, Maryna and her family went abroad, but soon returned to her hometown to stay close to those in need. Later, as the fighting intensified, she had to evacuate for the second time, this time to Obukhiv in Kyiv region.
Not everything was easy in the new city. The period of adaptation was difficult, with a sense of loss, stress and emotional exhaustion, but it was then that the idea of creating a place to be together with those who were also looking for support came to her. That's how the Phoenix OM NGO was born - a space where people support each other, where a sense of home, support and unity gradually returns.
Every day Maryna does what she thinks is right, provides support to those who have lost the motivation and strength to start their lives from scratch, and her story is a story about how, overcoming difficulties every day, you can find true friends and a favorite business and the power that unites different people into a single whole in the most difficult times.
Read the detailed story of the contestant here: https://surl.lu/zeeaeh