From the 27th August to 10th of
September 2007 in Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Chernihiv oblasts the
International campaign for volunteer movement promotion was held.
During two weeks volunteers from Poland, Serbia, France, Germany,
Denmark, Turkey and Japan jointly with Ukrainian peers worked on
solving actual problems of Ukrainian communities. The initiative of UN
Volunteers programme met the support of Chornobyl recovery and
Development programme, Ukrainian Association for Youth Cooperation
Alternative-V, and United Nations Development Programme Project “Human
Security for Ukrainian Youth”.
International volunteers’ team demonstrated a good example of
fruitful and effective work in rural communities of Lubech, Chernihiv
oblast, Kruglyk Kyiv oblast, Lystvyn, Kyrdany and Korosten, Zhytomyr
oblast. Volunteer work camp became a good format for volunteer movement
promotion, youth development and cross-cultural connections. Acting at
the community level, doing useful things for youth, who live on
Chornobyl-affected territories, young challengers with their
initiatives contributed to worldwide efforts in achieving Millennium
Development Goals spelled out in the United Nations Millennium
Declaration.
Having spent one or two days in every village or town, international
volunteers provided trainings for local youth on volunteerism and after
that together with Ukrainian peers did concrete tasks, important for
local community. Meetings with young Ukrainians and training were
conducted on a base of local Youth Centres that work in every village,
listed above. Youth centres, opened in many Ukrainian villages and
towns with support of United Nations Development Programme, foster an
active citizenship, help in solving problems of local youth, and give
an access to knowledge and information. That is why international
volunteers’ visit is a chance not only for obtaining new skills and
volunteerism traditions, but also for demonstrating own achievements
and experience.
Korosten youth community representative Mr.Andriy Kostrytsya noted, that “Thanks
to meeting with international volunteers we understood that
volunteerism is not only working for free – it is a real philosophy of
participation of citizens in a community development. Despite different
languages we spoke, nothing could stop our joint work on arranging a
playground for kids in an ancient style on a territory of City Park.
Yes, the playground is very important, but the most important thing we
did is our cultural exchange and share of experience. I would like to
stay good friends with our guests and I wish our fabulous city would
stay in every heart forever”.
This volunteer campaign became an important event not only for
Ukrainian rural communities, but for international volunteers as well,
because the intensive programme of the drive also included interesting
excursions to Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Chornobyl. Sharing her impression
after visiting Kruglyk, Kyiv oblast Ukraine Ms. Kathleen Zeidler from
Germany said:
“It’s very important and responsible to be here, to meet with young
people, to work together. We are clearly aware about the fact that we
represent not only our countries, but the volunteer movement a whole.
Here, in Kruglyk we communicated our programme to local youth and met a
full understanding and support. After that together we worked on
cleaning the Tomb of the Soviet Soldier and the place around it .
Nothing makes people closer than joint useful work”.
Making a summary Ms. Ann Merrill – co-manager of UN Volunteers
programme mentioned that useful experience of joint solving of local
problems by community, which is widely spread in different countries,
has a fair chance to develop in Ukraine. A final event of the campaign
was a press-conference at UNIAN on the 10th of September 2007, where
results of the two weeks of work were described and discussed
prospective of volunteerism in Ukraine.
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