Among the many strange moments amid an utterly horrible war, this one must be the most surreal:
Hanna of OSMIA, a leading Second Life brand, is a Ukraine citizen in real life, and since Russia's invasion, has been hiding out in her now-occupied city. She is now nearly 7 months pregnant. But because OSMIA is a key income source for her and her now-growing family, she must still maintain her virtual world brand.
And so after many weeks of sporadic Internet service -- what with the sounds of gunfire, tanks, and explosions of a genocidal war happening all around her -- she was finally able to upload a new avatar fashion release, pretty clothes for glamorous, carefree avatars:
"I am from Ukraine and there is a war in my country, I am in a city under Russian occupation," as she put it simply on her OSMIA Facebook page. "Now I have the Internet (for how long I don’t know). I was able to publish a release that was supposed to be released on February 25th."
Click here for more details, and click here to teleport to the SL shopping location.
"I want to say a big thank you to the Kustom9 event and Rebel Gal for offering and giving me space for my latest release, which should have been released at the end of February," she adds. Notably, Rebel Gal is based in Russia, another Russian Second Life user among many who have rallied to help their Ukrainian friends while their government's army ravages the neighboring country.
As for Hanna, who I communicate with on Facebook from time to time, I won't say where she is now, except to say that she is thankfully much safter than she was last month. But like the rest of her nation, still far from being truly safe.
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