Remembering Ukrainian Oksana Makar. Gone, not forgotten

“Our work, opposing gender based violence (GBV) and the rape of women and girls—women’s rights to safety of the person in other words—has brought us both the joy of sisterhood and the pain of loss.

“We lost our Cathy Williams and three workers in Myanmar. They were only trying to do good. We lost three workers in Mosul, Iraq and we lost one of our beloved security guards, Gila, in Iraq… I won’t continue. I will talk about Oksana.

“Ten years ago, I told my sisters that 55% burns of the type Oksana suffered was not usually survivable. We were in the cafeteria of the Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, part of the University of Toronto Hospital Network. Many of us were taking upgrade courses and I was becoming a Nurse Practitioner and needed an advanced  credit in pharmacology. The mood was ecstatic. We had the commitment of three plastic surgeons and the head of the Sick Children’s Hospital  interprofessional burn unit and all we needed to do was fly Oksana Makar to Toronto. Air Canada agreed. We were hysterically gleeful because this little girl’s case ripped our hearts out and with earnest, from thousands of kilometers away, we fought as hard as we could to save her. We felt then we had the best burn units for kids in the entire world. We had one USA surgeon and two Canadians on standby. Then she died. We were crossing across University Avenue to Sick Kids Hospital when I got the text from Katie. I called her and she was crying.

“We will never forget you, sister, Oksana Makar.”

Citing emailed response by Hayley Amanda Miles (NP) (NWOB.org)

“It has been ten years. We promised Oksana before she died that we would never forget. The pain is very much felt today but now it is ten years ago and she would have been 28, same as many of our youngest directors like Rosa,” remembers Sharon Santiago.

“Oksana Makar, RINJ Member since 2010, raped 8 March 2012, then strangled  and wrapped in a rug, set alight with an accelerant. With 55% of her body burned, she died 29 March 2012. Gone but not forgotten is our Oksana Makar,” writes ‘Amanda’ Miles in remembrance.

Via Facebook, Oksana Makar joined the global RapeIsNoJoke.com woman’s group at 16,  fighting gender based violence in 2010 from Facebook.

Oksana was part of a campaign to fight rape promotion pages on Facebook in 2010 and 2011.

In March of this year, after 15 years building over 65k anti-GBV supporters on the facebook.com/Rape.is.no.Joke page, RINJ left the social media platform this March because Facebook’s promotion of hatred and misogyny contraindicated drawing women and girls to the dangers of the platform. The public can now join RINJ Women here.

“Facebook where RINJ had over 65,000 followers is allowing and concomitantly encouraging its members to promote the killing of Russians in Ukraine” said a statement on the NGO’s website.

Photo from RINJ Women Heartbreak Cases

RINJ Member  Oksana Makar bonded many women in Ukraine as a collective voice for change. Remember Oksana Makar (11 June 1993 – 29 March 2012) File Photo Courtesy The RINJ Foundation