“When your hands are busy, your soul finds peace”: how Nataliia from the Luhansk region is healing through artisanal baking in her new home

Nataliia is originally from the Luhansk region. After the outbreak of the full-scale war, she relocated to the Vinnytsia region — to the distinctive and mysterious Ukrainian village of Busha, which has since become her new home. It was here that she met specialists from the Ukrainian Red Cross’s Reboot programme, who offered her support in developing her business.

Nataliia is engaged in artisanal baking, making biscuits and stollen using her own recipes based on amaranth flour. She decorates gingerbread by hand — even during power outages. At such times, she works by candlelight, as people once did, or by the light of a torch.

After joining the microbusiness support programme, Nataliia received a grant to grow her enterprise. This support enabled her to purchase an oven, a planetary mixer, and other essential equipment, turning her culinary experiments into a fully functioning mini-bakery. Today, her baked goods are enjoyed not only by the local community — she sends biscuits and stollen by post across Ukraine.

“This work has become a form of therapy for me,” says Nataliia. “When your hands are busy, your soul finds peace, and the aroma of freshly baked goods brings a small moment of comfort to people. The support from the Ukrainian Red Cross came at exactly the right time and was incredibly important.”

Her plans for the spring include further developing her business and growing aromatic and medicinal herbs, with the aim of launching her own artisanal herbal tea production. Alongside baking, Nataliia is studying photography and promoting the historical and scenic places that have become her home.