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Belarus: “I want to unite people through education”

Belarusian students have struggled to access international educational opportunities since the regime’s repression of dissenting voices and support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. John Smith Fellow and political activist Lizaveta Trakhalina is working to change that. 

Lizaveta is a Belarusian lawyer working for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and an activist who believes passionately in a democratic future for her country. She’s also an academic who, after completing a Chevening/Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholarship at the University of Oxford, wants more Belarusian students to benefit from international study opportunities. 

In the climate of repression that has followed the 2020 elections, such opportunities are in short supply. “When I was a student, we could participate in international competitions and exchanges,” says Lizaveta, who is taking part in our 2024/25 Belarus leaders in exile fellowship programme. “But now students are told that if they participate, they will be dismissed from university. This makes it difficult for them to develop internationally and to meet people from other countries. It’s so important to have opportunities to have shared experiences and find commonalities between cultures to help us build a free, tolerant and peaceful society in the future.” 

When Russia launched part of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine from Belarusian soil in 2022, the remaining opportunities for students to enrich their studies at international universities disappeared. “Internships were closed,” says Lizaveta. “People with Belarusian nationalities were not allowed to participate in many internships or study programmes in the EU. There were no opportunities for development because inadvertently the war facilitated hatred amongst nations rather than hatred towards the regime” 

Election observer 

Lizaveta became interested in politics in 2016 while studying law at university. She got involved in a political movement for freedom and took part in canvassing and rallies. When she returned from her Chevening Scholarship in 2020, she registered as an election observer during the presidential elections. But when she arrived to observe a polling station at her former school in Zaslavl, she was barred from entering. 

“I was really angry,” she recalls. “I took a chair and sat outside from morning to evening for five days.” On the day the votes were counted, a crowd gathered to hear the result. The authorities finally allowed Lizaveta inside after all the votes were “counted” and showed her only a piece of paper with numbers that meant Lukashenka had won. Convinced that the result was false, she led a group of 300 people to another polling station in the town. They were met by the security forces. 

“It was a really tense moment,” says Lizaveta. “Me and one other guy went to talk to the special forces. We said we would be there for some time but then we’d leave when the results were announced. I was afraid because I felt responsible for all these people.” 

Fleeing Belarus 

This protest passed peacefully, but a wave of repressions followed the rigged election as the regime imprisoned opposition leaders or forced them into exile. “People who were in Belarus were just trying to survive the repressions,” says Lizaveta. “We thought 2020 was bad but the repressions increased two-fold, three-fold, four-fold, year after year.” 

In July 2023, Lizaveta was called to the KGB offices and told to sign a ‘voluntary admission of guilt’ for supporting an extremist organisation. “By extremists, they mean anything that is not supported by the regime,” says Lizaveta. “I was close to doing it. There is such psychological pressure. It was very scary and difficult not to sign it – but I just couldn’t do it.”  

Rather than go home and wait for arrest, Lizaveta fled Belarus. She initially experienced depression from having to leave her home and country. “But when I regained my energy,” she says, “I started thinking about what I could do to help that would not be political. One of my strengths is supporting people to increase their chances to study abroad.” 

Bright Belarus 

Hoping to keep this window of opportunity open for students in her country, Lizaveta set up Bright Belarus, a mentorship programme designed to help Belarusians apply for international scholarships.  

“I wanted to unite people through education,” she says. “I decided to build a community to connect Belarusians who want to study abroad with fellow Belarusians who have experienced the culture where they want to study. It’s all online because most of our mentors are people in the diaspora. The programme also helps people who are outside Belarus keep a connection to their country.” 

So far, Bright Belarus has successfully matched over 60 young mentees from Belarus with a community of 60 mentors who provide one-to-one support with their application process. It represents diverse academic fields, including music, arts, law, bioengineering and AI research. 

Socially responsible business 

Lizaveta’s action plan during her John Smith Trust Fellowship is to connect with UK-based mentorship platforms to understand their operational models and financial structures. She plans to build on the existing Bright Belarus mentorship programme to create a socially responsible mentorship business that connects and empowers people. 

She says: “To maintain the free part of our programme for Belarusians, we need to bring in an operational income through creating a mentoring business. So that’s what I want to do. I’m hoping to meet with the Westminster Foundation to learn how they operate because they have a business model in mentorship.” 

“I always believe in the great potential of the Belarusian people; we have our own unique perspective to share with other cultures. And when I think about this programme, I imagine I’m helping someone like a younger version of me. When I was at school, I wanted to see a broader world and know what it’s like to study in other countries.”  

Mentorship and support from Belarusians who had studied abroad have been instrumental in Lizaveta’s career. “It changed my life,” she says. “Now I want to open this up to a much broader community of Belarusians, to make these connections possible for them.” 

You can read Lizaveta’s post ‘Exiled but Unbroken: Inspiring Belarusian Youth through Bright Belarus on the scholar’s blog for the Chevening/Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholarship at the University of Oxford.  

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