‘I WANT the people of Scotland to remember us as good people,” says Olha Maslova.
Sitting across from the Ukrainian-born charity founder, she is beaming with warmth and talks about her roots with pride as she expresses her eagerness to share her story.
After leaving Bucha, Ukraine, with her family to escape the tragedies of the Ukrainian-Russian war in 2022, Maslova settled in Scotland, where she continued to cling to her national pride and respect for her roots as a Ukrainian citizen.
Her new Glaswegian neighbours showed her and her family kindness when they first moved to the city, gifting toys to each other’s children to play before they departed their first home.
This act of generosity inspired Maslova to carry that kindness forward to the people of Glasgow.
She said: “I thought maybe we need a small organisation that can make a bridge between us and Scottish people.”
Maslova founded the DOVIRA Project Scotland in 2025, and the organisation aims to support the mental and physical wellbeing of Ukrainian refugees who live in Scotland.
She has been invited to be an ambassador at the Scottish Refugee Festival, which celebrates the cultures of various communities across the nation who have settled in Scotland. This festival will take place from June 12-21.
Dovira is a Ukrainian word which translates to “trust” – and that is the sentiment Maslova and the team wanted to get across to their Scottish community.
“We started hosting events like fairs and movie screenings and a lot of Scottish people started to come to these events.”
Maslova recalls one event where they screened the Ukrainian movie Bucha and invited the producer of the movie to take part in a Q&A session. This screening was held at the now permanently closed Centre for Contemporary Arts.
“It is very sad they are closed because they were very friendly and they gave us a free venue for our event.”
Community and co-operation are the key values of the charity; their presence aims to foster positive collaboration between refugees and locals.
Another venture of the charity is to open a Ukrainian library in Woodside Library, they are working with The Reading Studios Foundation in Switzerland who will give them books for free, and Woodside will provide a home for these books.
The DOVIRA project recently held a litter pick around Glasgow where they lifted 840kg of litter, with the support of Glasgow City Council.
The group erected a memorial stone at Springburn Park as a symbol representing to the people of Scotland for supporting Ukrainians who came here in 2022 to flee the war against Russia.
“I hope that someday we will go back to Ukraine. Here (Scotland), we don’t have a very easy life, but we (DOVIRA) have not forgotten about our country.”
Right now, the war between Russia and Ukraine rages on, resulting in damaged infrastructure, the deaths of thousands of civilians on both sides, and people having to flee their home country for safety.
Those around Maslova who have settled and want to stay in Scotland were confused by her wish to one day return to their home country if the war were to cease.
Maslova said: “I believe that when the war is over, it will be a great opportunity for us because we will need to make a new country. It’s our homeland.
“In my country, I had a similar job to the one I have now; I was working with people who had returned from the war since it began in 2014.”
When she was still living in Ukraine, Maslova was working as a psychologist to aid those who developed mental health issues because of the war and helped kids whose parents died during the war.
“When we moved here two years ago, I couldn’t understand what was happening or what the future would be like, but after a while I realised we needed to make this bridge between us and Scottish people.”
Her new mission in Glasgow was to bring a piece of her culture to her new Scottish home, which she and her team have been doing without outside help.
The charity strives to keep their Ukrainian heritage alive through their events and activities to maintain their identity in their new home.
One way they are doing this is by teaching their language to children ages two to five years old who have moved here from Ukraine or have been brought up in Scotland.
However, their efforts and determination are only taking them so far, with founder Maslova hoping to gain external financial support to continue their work.
“We are working like volunteers. We don’t have grants; we don’t have anything. We make all these events to cover our costs, like the money we make from ticket sales for concerts or movie screenings we host.”
While Maslova and her team are extending their kindness and gratitude to the people of Glasgow, her desire to support others during hardship remains unwavering.
“Maybe when the war is done and we can go back to Ukraine, I can make something similar to DOVIRA in Ukraine with the experiences I have now.”
