Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “Thank you for everything, Mom! Today is the perfect day to thank those who gave us life – our mothers.
I want to thank every mother. Every mother raising children in these difficult times, teaching them to tell right from wrong, to believe in themselves, and never to be afraid to be honest. Every mother who loves and waits for her sons and daughters from prison or exile, never losing hope for a reunion. Every mother who sacrificed her freedom so that her children could live in a free country. Every mother who works, cares, teaches, protects – and still finds the strength to smile.
You are our pride, our tenderness, our foundation. You remind us that Belarus is made up of people capable of love, forgiveness, and creation – even when everything seems destroyed.
May your children and grandchildren tell you what we too often forget to say: thank you for the sleepless nights, for your faith, for your strength, and for your endless and unconditional love that defies all circumstances.
Sadly, not everyone can personally greet their mothers today – the regime has done everything possible to create barriers, to tear us from our loved ones, and to deprive us of this vital bond. But neither distance, nor prison walls, nor exile can destroy what a mother feels in her heart.
From the bottom of my heart, I wish every mother in Belarus and beyond to embrace her children soon again – for those hugs to be as long as the waiting and as warm as a mother’s love. May every home once again echo with laughter, and may Belarus feel like one big family united by love”.
Photo from Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s personal archive
