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Second Volunteerism Promotion Campaign in Zhytomir and Rivne oblasts, August 2008


 
  Welcoming the group of volunteers to Udrytsk village
  Language barrier never seemed to be a barrier in fact
  Children in Lugyny designing the Village of the Future together with international volunteers
  Painting audience stands around prospective football field
  Mihavil Frater from Croatia preparing volleyball court marking
  Both tools and work were in abundance
  Off-work, Kasumi from Japan teaches children the traditional art of origami
  Some preferred to play team-game, such as football
  ... can be played by girls as well
  Anastasia Bilenko, Ukraine, and Tobias Eisenlohr, USA, sharing their volunteer experience
  Changes to be implemented by young village's inhabitants
  Coordination of work with Fedir Fedorovych - the Head of Udrytsk village
  Installment of granite boulder as a base for commemorative plaque
  Job done!
  Certainly there are lots of possibilities for intercultural learning
  Including traveling with traditional Ukrainian carts
  Tobias, USA, teaches Ukrainian villagers an Ohio State University tradition - O.H.I.O!
  Lesya Kharchenko, Ukraine, waits for local volunteers to arrive to start cleaning the territory of the memorial
  Trish Webb, Great Britain, and Viktoria Andrievska, Ukraine, cleaning territory around the monument to WWII victims
  Ukrainian youngsters are very interested to learn about best international volunteer practices
  Proposed Plan of Actions received critically by both international and local youth
  Future Mayors of Zaluzhzhia?
From August 16th a group of international volunteers from Croatia, England, Italy, USA, the Netherlands, Japan and Ukraine visited 5 villages and towns in Chronobyl zone 3 in Rivne and Zhytomyr oblasts.

The goal of the joint campaign organised by UNV Ukraine and Ukrainian Association for Youth Cooperation “Alternative-V” was to promote volunteering and active citizenship among Ukrainian youth. Mobilizing the younger generations to resolve current problems at a local level is essential for the development of Ukrainian society.

For two weeks international volunteers shared best volunteer practices which had been tried and tested in their countries.

Volunteers developed a special program to highlight the importance and effectiveness of volunteering in local communities. The main concept of the program was to tell the young people to imagine what they would do if they were mayors of their village, then develop a list of changes they would bring to their villages’ lives. More than 150 young people took part in the program. Some of the most mentioned activities included: repairing roads; cleaning of the streets; increasing the number of employment opportunities; building a hospital; renovating the village school, etc. To show how to deal with some of the problems, which can be feasibly solved by the communities involved, volunteers helped the young people to develop plans of actions. The volunteers also assisted in some joint voluntary work in the villages, like cleaning memorial sites and parks.