Maria Romanenko
Maria Romanenko is a journalist, editor, and writer from Kyiv, Ukraine now living in Manchester, England.
Having fled the war in 2022, Maria continues to work as a journalist and translator; doing what she can to help the Ukrainian people. Maria has worked with the BBC, ITV, ABC News, and Sky News and was Editor-in-Chief of Hromadske International — an English-language Ukrainian publication — from 2018 to 2020.
In 2021, Maria led the publication of ‘How We Will Get Crimea Back’: a project that highlighted Russia’s systematic violations of human rights against Crimean Tatars and was distributed among UN leaders.
Most recently, Maria became the first Ukrainian recipient of the Prime Minister’s Points of Light award for her voluntary work in ‘advocacy for Ukraine’ as well as a finalist at Manchester City Council’s Culture awards in the ‘culture and education’ category.
Jez Myers
Jeremy ‘Jez’ Myers is, by his own admission, not a writer. A recipient of Manchester City Council’s ‘Pride of Manchester’ Award and the Chairperson for the Spirit of Manchester Awards, the passionate Mancunian has often found himself championing the people of his beloved city and its surrounding areas. Whether writing in local papers or shouting about things online, Jez has a knack for rallying support around his community and doing what he can for others.
After meeting partner Maria Romanenko, a Ukrainian journalist, in 2020, Jez was set to leave Manchester for Kyiv. However, after fleeing the war, Jez has thrown his full support behind the people of Ukraine and, despite his best efforts, continues to write to this day.