I met both Natasha Estemirova and Zarema Sudaleyeva when I first visited Chechnya in July 2005. Chechnya then was desolate and virtually emptied out of its people. The conflicts that had raged for over a decade had turned the flattened city of Grozny into a virtually haunted place absent of the sounds of normal life and with random bursts of gunfire. I arrived on a bus from Nalchik and had never been to a place that looked like a dried out plain mud field where apart from the bus station there was nowhere to eat or sleep or go to the toilet unless you knew some brave soul who took you in and shared their meagre resources with you. You could not tell if what you were looking at had been a street or the odd ruin had been a home or just what remained of a building of some kind. I arrived there after a crazy dash from the bus stop to Memorial’s modest headquarters - where I met and made a video from which the two still photographs of Natasha and Zarema were taken. I had heard of Natasha but I was amazed how she and her colleagues were defiantly maintaining a semblance of normality. But that fragile reality soon was shattered by what seemed like a fierce gun battle in the street outside. I was videoing Natasha as she was telling me what a brutal killer TB in Chechnya was and I remember her looking towards the incoming noise of gunfire and looking so dismissive and continuing to talk. Despite the fear that I felt I had no choice but to continue filming her. All MARCCH’s efforts to fight TB since then were inspired by that early encounter. Natasha told me then that she feared for her life because she feared what might happen to her fatherless daughter who was nine at the time.

I was introduced to Zarema Sudalayeva by Natasha. Zarema came to meet me at Memorial and later we all three went to visit the orphanage that Zarema ran for handicapped children. She had just replaced her boss who was killed and the running of the orphanage was an obvious burden on her young shoulders. I later learnt that when I met her Zarema was only thirty years old. I thought she was in her mid forties. I especially remember a child who was severely handicapped but was singing a song by Elvis Presley when he could not even speak any English. The way Zarema ran the orphanage was genuinely moving and highly effective. The children she was caring for were stimulated and well- cared for and in Chechnya at the time that was almost miraculous.

In 2009 we lost invaluable colleagues and Chechnya lost two valiant champions that will be sorely missed by all those who knew them.