Firefighting and Training Camp on Ladoga Skerries

Ladoga Skerries is a unique landscape on the shores of Europe’s biggest lake, in Karelia, northwest Russia. Before it became a national park Greenpeace Russia has been organising a firefighting camp every year to look out for forest fires here and to train volunteer firefighters.
In Russia women aren’t allowed to become firefighters by law. But that’s not stopping these courageous women from volunteering to fight forest fires. The ban stops women from directly fighting fires. But, at the same time, according to the law, it’s okay for a woman to carry out support work (like cooking), and administration, even if we’re not fighting fires directly. By getting trained as a fire-ground commander, they can get the official right to start fighting forest fires.