Reconnecting divided communities
Annett Gerber knows well the deep pain and the exhausting challenge inherent in divided communities – she comes from one of them. Hailing from the former German Democratic Republic, the 54-year-old SMM monitoring officer is no stranger to division. “There is a special link to my own personal history as I have myself experienced all the hardship that families face to stay in touch,” Annett explains as she observes the flow of people crossing the Stanytsia Luhanska bridge, which is the only entry-exit checkpoint in Luhansk region.
Annett has been with the SMM since October 2018, but her journey to support communities started over 20 years ago. She worked with an NGO which provided psychological support to refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina to overcome trauma as well as administrative assistance for resettlement or repatriation, and in years to come, she went on to work elsewhere in the Balkans and the South Caucasus.
Today Annett spends most of her days on patrol, monitoring and reporting on the situation on the Stanytsia Luhanska bridge connecting the communities living in the government-controlled and non-government controlled areas of Luhansk region. A skilled driver, she is regularly at the wheel of a five-ton armoured vehicle somewhere along the 500-kilometre contact line. “Winters are particularly challenging,” she explains. “ As if snow and ice were not strenuous enough, roads often run through minefields, so as you drive you are fully aware that mistakes can be fatal.
”Stanytsia Luhanska has been the main focus of her work since disengagement in June 2019. Crossing the bridge, destroyed in 2014, is as time-consuming as it is vital for people trying to access basic goods and social services, including health care and pensions. While everyone is a person of concern, the struggle of the elderly is the closest to her heart – research shows that more than 30 per cent of the 4.4 million conflict-affected people in Ukraine are over 60 years old. “Once I saw an elderly couple crossing the bridge. The man collapsed after crossing the broken part and died from a heart attack,” she recalls. “The man was about my father’s age. It is hard for me even to imagine my own family member being exposed to such hardships.”
Decades of experience have taught Annett that any progress matters. “The sides have agreed on de-mining and the restoration of the bridge, and a shuttle bus was introduced to ease the long way for the elderly. People still feel insecure, but also hopeful. I am privileged to be able to listen and talk to them,” she says.