The collection of essays for the 1000 Days of War. My Way Contest , organised by the Museum of Civilian Voices by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation has been completed. More than 4,000 essays have been received from all over Ukraine.

We are grateful to all the pupils, students and teachers who shared their memories and feelings about the 1000 days of war. The names of the winners will be announced on December 20, 2024, on the website of the Museum of Civilian Voices.

The authors of the best essays, both students and teachers, will receive gifts and valuable prizes. The most talented essays will be selected by an expert jury. The jury will include Ivan Stepurin, a publisher, founder and head of the Samit-Knyga publishing house, Tetiana Vlasova, a well-known poet, Oleksiy Sukhanov, an actor and presenter, and Dasha Tregubova, an actress, presenter and producer.

The essays submitted to the competition are striking in their real-life stories, insightful conclusions and craftsmanship. Here is just one quote from over 4,000 works:

"I remember my great-grandmother. She looked at us with such warmth that sometimes we, the great-grandchildren, wondered where this frail old woman got so much love. And she kept repeating: "Children, if only there was no war!". Of course, we nodded our heads so as not to offend our grandmother, but we thought: "What war? It's the twenty-first century! We live in a civilised world!" And now a few years have passed, and this terrible cursed war has breathed hellfire on each of us. It burned our dreams and hopes, scorched our hearts and souls. And these burns will never heal," wrote Nadiya, a 15-year-old from Poltava.

The best works of the Contest will become part of the Museum of Civilian Voices by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, the world's largest collection of stories about the war in Ukraine, which already contains more than 120,000 first-hand stories.

The contest is organised by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation with the support of the State Scientific Institution Institute for Modernisation of Education Content and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

Share your story about the war on the Museum's portal or on the free hotline 0 (800) 509 001