Death Doula Voices: A Year into the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
Recorded: March 2023
Webinar Moderator:
Wilka Roig – INELDA Educator and transpersonal psychologist
Webinar Guest:
Alla Savchenko | Co-Founder of Death Foundation
Sasha Leah Adina Wickenden | Co-Founder of Death Foundation
Recorded: March 2023
Webinar Moderator:
Wilka Roig | INELDA educator and transpersonal psychologist
Webinar Guest:
Alla Savchenko | Co-Founder of Death Foundation
Sasha Leah Adina Wickenden | Co-Founder of Death Foundation
Listen to our conversation with Alla Savchenko and Sasha Leah Adina Wickenden, co-founders of the Death Foundation, based in the Russian-speaking world. Both trained as end-of-life doulas with INELDA and focused their knowledge and skills to support their communities close at home and as the war required, at a distance.
INELDA’s educator, Wilka Roig, moderated the conversation with Alla and Sasha about doula work during war times, processing of grief and trauma on the one-year anniversary of Putin’s attack on Ukraine, and how to support people in the region who may have never heard of a death doula before.
Speaker Bios:
Alla Savchenko
Alla had a former career as a model and a head of boutique model agency in Ukraine. After giving birth to her son and confronting her own mortality, Alla decided to explore death as a part of life. The desire to go deeper in this topic led her to Sasha Leah Adina’s workshop about death and later to INELDA training. She completed training in October 2021 and started her death doula practice immediately.
After the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 she had to abandon her hometown of Dnipro and move to Spain for a while. She was mourning the loss of her usual way of life due to the war.
Currently Alla works on cases of grief and provides support to people forced to leave their homes due to military aggression of Russia.
Together with Sasha Leah Adina, Alla co-founded “Death Foundation” to develop the death doula movement in the post-Soviet Union area. One of the most important projects they’ve created so far is the death doula educational project for Russian-speakers. Many years of experience as a teacher helps Alla in her current work.
Sasha Leah Adina Wickenden
Sasha Leah Adina is a practicing death doula, writer and influencer in the Russian speaking world raising awareness about death and grief.
She enrolled in INELDA’s End-of-Life Doula Training 2 years ago and became the first Russian-speaking death doula. Since her training, she’s been working on establishing a community of professionals working with death and grief. Together with Alla they are now launching the first death doula training for Russian speakers.
Her Instagram blog about death, life and grief has 15k followers. She has a regular column in Psychologies magazine, answering readers’ questions about death and grief. Sasha Leah Adina developed Grieving Guidelines that have been downloaded and used by 500,000+ people.
Sasha Leah Adina is half-Russian and half-Ukranian and faced the hardship of the war from the lens of someone who belongs to both worlds.
The recording of this webinar is available to Tier 2 & 3 members as part of their INELDA membership benefits. Tier 1 and Non-members who purchased access to the webinar may also view the recording.
VIEW A RECORDING OF THIS WEBINAR [here]
