Russia's 'beacon' for sick children, facing jail for pro-peace message

Lida Moniava is 38 and has been working to help sick and disabled children across Russia since she was a teenager.Russia's 'beacon' for sick children, facing jail for pro-peace messageAfter Russia launched its offensive on Ukraine in 2022, she also started helping Ukrainian refugees and criticising the war, which has become Europe's biggest conflict since World War II.Earlier this month, she was arrested, put under supervised curfew and forced to wear an ankle monitor, pending a trial on charges of spreading "false information" about the Russian army.She faces years in prison, in a case that even far into an escalating crackdown, has shocked Russian civil society.The charges stem from a 2023 Telegram post in which she cited UN statistics on civilian casualties, and called to help Ukrainian refugees living in Russia.Moniava is a respected figure and one of the country's most prominent and effective charity leaders, with her work filling a void in care for sick and disabled children left by the state.In 2025, her foundation raised more than 1.2 billion rubles a substantial sum in Russia to provide free medication, equipment, in-home support, nurses and nannies to children in need."My son Lyosha survived thanks to the support of Lida's fund," Elena Babich, a 50-year-old mother to a son with disabilities."Today he can live a life close to ordinary," she said, attributing that to the "daily work" of Moniava."Lida is our symbol and our beacon, but also someone who works her heart out every single day."- Lighthouse -Born in Moscow to a Soviet family of intellectuals, Moniava was 16 when she started helping children with cancer through an Orthodox Christian group.She was trained in journalism, but gave that up to devote herself to helping children full-time as an adult.After working for several foundations, in 2013 she launched Moscow's first hospice for terminally ill children, and then in 2018, her famed charity fund, "House with the Lighthouse".In Russian society, where sick or disabled people are often shut away in institutions a practice inherited from the Soviet Union Moniava promoted destigmatisation, including through outdoor activities."Lida Moniava is on the side of life, and those who are trying to put her in prison are on the side of death," Nobel Peace Prize winner and veteran liberal journalist Dmitry Muratov told AFP at her court hearing in Moscow.Even before the war, she had been targeted by ultra-conservative groups.During the Covid-19 pandemic, she adopted a severely disabled boy, Kolya, regularly posting photos and videos on social media of their walks and activities.He died in 2022, aged 13. Soon after, a hardline lawyer filed a complaint against her for negligence. An official investigation found no wrongdoing.- 'Cannot stay silent' -At the start of the war in 2022, Moniava launched a project to help some of the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees who had fled to Russia because of the fighting.It provided assistance to some 17,000 in the first three years of the war.Unable to outright protest against the war without risking imprisonment, many Russians feel charitable and humanitarian work like that is the only way they can safely do something.Almost all of President Vladimir Putin's critics and major opponents to the war are dead, in jail or exile.Moniava chose to speak out against the war, despite the risks.In February, she was fined for "discrediting" the Russian army over social media posts condemning the offensive."War is evil. It is a terrible tragedy. It is a crime," she wrote after the fine.She refused to flee the country."If I leave the country, more palliative children will end up lying in orphanages and intensive care units. Knowing that, I could hardly live happily in another country," she said."But I cannot stay silent as if there is no war."After the latest proceedings against her were launched, she again refused to leave, despite "a huge number of recommendations," she said."I fully understand the risks... but it's important for me to stay in Russia in this difficult time."She has stepped down as director of her fund, so that it can continue to operate.To her supporters, the targeting is little short of a travesty."These days in Russia they're also prosecuting saints," said a 50-year-old woman from Moscow who asked not to be named.bur/phz/aneThis article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.