Saniie Osmanova

An 11-year-old refugee whose family has been forced to move time and time again over decades, Saniie Osmanova has been nominated for Child of Courage, sponsored by De Vere Wokefield Estate.

Now at Beechwood Primary in Woodley she represents the Crimean Tatars (Qirimli), an indigenous people and minority group of Ukraine with a rich and unique culture they strive to preserve.

Her family has faced displacement several times. In 1944, when the Soviet regime forcibly deported Crimean Tatars from their homeland, her grandparents were sent to Uzbekistan where her mother was born and raised.

In 2001, they returned to Crimea, holding on to the dream of living on their ancestral land and where Saniie was born in 2014 in Yevpatoriya, a city on Crimea’s western Black Sea coast.

When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the family had to move again; this time to Lviv in western Ukraine.

After the full-scale invasion in 2022, Saniie came to the UK with her mother and sister. She joined Year 4 at Beechwood where it took time to adapt, but she learned English and will be starting secondary school this autumn.

Making a new life here, she goes to Rocksteady Music School and sportschool dance, as well the Reading Ukrainian School Lastivka on Saturdays.

Recently, the family gave a presentation there about Qirimli history and culture as they marked the anniversary of the 1944 deportation with the Ukrainian school community.