Mother of two, Olga Dobruseva, left Belarus in 2021 fearing arrest because of her activism and now lives in Georgia. In the summer of 2025 she broke her arm. In order not to become disabled, she borrowed money for a complex surgery. Now she has no means of subsistence, her children have just started first grade, and she is asking for help to get through the rehabilitation period.
Before the events of 2020, Olga and her husband had their own investment project in Biahoml. The couple restored premises and created jobs. As a caring person, in 2020 Olga actively joined activism even before the presidential elections: “I tried very hard to engage people – in stories and in posts; we urged people to take part in protests in Biahoml.” Together the couple participated in protests.
“There were no arrests in Biahoml: at first we had human relations with the local police,” the activist recalls. “If dispersals were expected, the police initially suggested that we go home by different routes.”
According to the Belarusian woman, the local authorities treated the couple well. They communicated with officials, suggesting they “take a stand,” to which they received the answer that “publicly – no,” but “for some things the authorities would turn a blind eye.” For a while they were left alone, but in 2021 the couple got a signal that law enforcers had taken an interest in them.
“A well-wisher informed us that a file was being compiled on us,” Olga recalls. “We were told directly that the file would be prepared within a week and then set in motion, but until the next Monday we were free.”
The couple decided not to wait, not to risk their children, and made the decision to leave. In November 2021 the family emigrated to Georgia.
“We didn’t wait and left,” says Olga. “I will not return to Belarus under the current regime… We were too well known, both at the rallies and as activists in Dokshytsy and Biahoml. We gave interviews, I never hid my attitude toward the regime. It’s strange – to wait until you are imprisoned.”
In Georgia the family settled in Batumi, the children went to kindergarten. Later the couple separated: Olga divorced her husband and for two years has been officially living and raising the children alone. She found work as a nurse and took part-time jobs in an apartment rental agency. According to her, her ex-husband sometimes takes the children for weekends, but most of the time they are with her, and all family expenses fell on her shoulders.
In the summer of 2025 Olga suffered a complicated arm fracture with displacement. She turned to doctors on the day of the injury, “but they told me to wait in line for about two weeks, while every day counted: it had to be done within the first week.”
The Belarusian woman borrowed money and had surgery on the sixth day after the injury. The operation to fix the fracture with titanium plates and two days in the hospital cost seven thousand lari (about 2,500 dollars). Thanks to the timely intervention, Olga’s arm is moving and healing, but during the recovery period she cannot work at all. The urgent issue is repaying the debts and covering the family’s basic needs.
“I am completely alone in a foreign country, unable to work,” Olga laments. “I cannot return to Belarus for treatment. If I am imprisoned, the children will be sent to an orphanage.”
Olga is counting on solidarity and support in this difficult period and is asking for help in covering the costs of the surgery (borrowed funds) and support during rehabilitation (housing, food, basic needs of the children).
Fundraising goal
€2500
€1700 – repayment of surgery debt
€800 – expenses for food and rent