In our previous article, we wrote about the ToT course for trainers and facilitators within the “Young Diversity Ambassadors” program. We spoke about its structure and its core values and explained how it helps young people in their training activities, work, and daily life.

Now we want to tell the stories of three people participating in the ToT course, of their journeys, and of the training course changing their lives.

Legal literacy for children. Ksenia Ukolova.

I am Ksyusha, and I am 20. I study law at the National University of Ostroh Academy. I originally come from Rivne. Thanks to my active student life I joined the Students League of the Ukrainian Bar Association. Starting as a volunteer, I am now the head of the organization.

At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, I had been abroad. It was hard for me to be away from home, as I couldn’t continue my activities there. I wanted to help and feel that I belong. I tried to engage in remote activities, and that was the least I could do for my people. Organizing events for foreigners had become my civic duty at that point, but my people were far away…

In December 2022 I couldn’t take it anymore, so I returned home. I started looking for opportunities to return to the activist environment. It is such a peculiar story. I love woods and all things green, and I needed to take a mountain trip. I longed for the Carpathians. I was skimming through an e-mail newsletter with opportunities when I saw this pink STAN poster advertising the “Young Diversity Ambassadors” program. I paid attention to color, but it didn’t impress me. I thought it would be about everything at once and nothing at all. Then I received another e-mail newsletter and saw this poster once again. I looked at the STAN pages, learned who they were and what they did and I was like, “OK, cool!”. I realized that it was not for the sake of appearances but for the result. I remember how surprised I was that it was held in Khata-Maysternia, which I hadn’t noticed at first. God, I would go to the mountains!

I loved the first basic workshop. I liked that the topics of human rights and arts and culture were put together. From my childhood days, I had trouble combining art and law, so I was torn between them. The second workshop was much worse, and I worried that after my feedback (in the end we filled out the forms) STAN would never cooperate with me again. I didn’t filter my words.

So I was surprised when I received an invitation to visit Bosnia and Herzegovina. When we returned, exchanged feedback, and the selection process for the ToT began, I realized I fell in love the community. I understood that not only did I learn theory but also learned from people’s experience. Take, for instance, Sasha Voytenko and Yana Malyha. Their experience has guided me and shaped my perception. I also got to know Yaroslav Minkin, one of the people who created the philosophy of STAN. I saw where it came from  and told myself, “I want to adopt this.” That’s how I got into the ToT course.

What were my expectations? I wanted to learn more about group dynamics (before the course I had practical experience but lacked the theory). There were much more unexpected results. New contacts and complex information in the ToT format which was much more advanced compared to the introductory workshops. I also noticed that the participants were using external ideas to understand themselves better. In the evening after the workshops, many people said “I had noticed it but I didn’t know it about myself” or “I didn’t know I’ve got it”. Through the lens of activities, people explored their inner world.

I use ToT experience in two main areas. I am the head of the organization, and I constantly use my experience to build the dynamics or give feedback when working with my team. After every event and in the moments of crises we come together and solve the issues and ponder upon them using non-standard practices.

I also work on legal literacy reform in orphanages. The existing course “Civic education” doesn’t provide the kids with the necessary skills and knowledge, that being critical thinking and the working principles of modern society. That’s why we decided to focus on the law literacy. From the experience of our group and the survey we conducted, I can say that in the majority of orphanages and foster homes, legal literacy is limited to “you have a right to a name and a right to find your parents, and “the age of criminal responsibility is 14 years”. Wow, what a “great” specter helping children to trust the state and use its services.

I combined my vocation and knowledge with approaches and methods I learned in STAN to create a ten-module study program. It aims to make the children understand their rights and teach them to use these rights. It helps children to understand if their rights are violated and where should they go, teaches them how to get their first documents and how to communicate with the police…

Children deprived of parental care are artificially isolated. We are now fighting the bureaucracy to get the integrated course through the walls of the orphanage.

The power of the small steps. Anton Yurchenko.

I come from Kamianka in the Cherkasy region. I have a degree in teaching Ukrainian language and literature. After graduating from university in 2014 I returned to my city to found the youth organization “New Generation of the Kamianka Region”.

All my work is related to youth activism. It energizes me. Many relatives and friends tell me, “Why are you doing this? It takes so much of your time and energy.” The truth is, when I see the results, when I inspire someone, that, in turn, inspires me twice as much. Then I understand what do I live for.

I live in a small town and our main target audience is teens. The active youth in my community study in high school. Then they leave the town for the university, and few of them return. Even if they return, they are starting families and looking for jobs, and they lack time for activism. That’s a problem many small communities share.

I would love them to return, as my workload is too big. It is hard, and often my morale is low. I keep saying I wash my hands of it all. But I don’t, in fact, wash my hands of it all. I rest a few days and understand I can’t live without it. At that point, it has become a part of me.

In 2020 we won a grant to create a youth space in the community. We have had this space for 4 years. Our main focus is informal education and quality leisure activities for youth. We speak about important social issues. For instance, last November we organized a workshop course on tolerance with Olena Grygoryak from the NGO “Insight”. It caused a scandal in the community. Many people with “post-soviet upbringing” condemned us for making “LGBT activists teach children”, “the world is sick”, etc. After that, I was dubbed the main organizer of gay pride in the community, and the youth space was called a “sect”. I am really glad that the youth working in the organization and attending the ambassadors’ events stand their ground. Some even managed to get their parents who were aggressively against people with different sexual orientations to change their views. They convinced their parents that it is actually OK, that LGBT has always been here and will always exist, and they need to accept them. When you hear such stories, you realize that your effort is valuable and you are not wasting your time. I am really glad because small as they may seem, these steps bring the big changes closer.

Last July I stumbled upon a registration form for the basic YDA course in Volodymyr. I believe it was fate. My colleague and I filled out the form because we were interested in the topics of the course, such as decolonization and feminism. We knew we wanted to promote these ideas in our community, and we wanted to boost our knowledge and skills. We liked it a lot. It was great that we didn’t waste these three days idle as tourists.

Then I registered for the ToT and I don’t regret this at all. ToT really helped me to better grasp the idea and structure of the workshops. Until then we had worked intuitively. We had created the workshops based on our perspective and tried to share as much information as we could. Sometimes it wasn’t well received. ToT has taught us how it needs to be done. One of the trainers said that the workshop doesn’t need to answer all the questions. On the contrary, it rather needs to inspire the participants to learn more. It has totally shifted my perspective. It is better to tell less than to overwhelm the participants with all the information.

I love my job. However, I hate working with papers, as it wastes a lot of time and energy. Still, I enjoy it a lot and I feel like I belong. I believe if you feel like you belong, it is easier for you to overcome any possible challenges.

Ripples in the water. Iryna Rotar.

I come from Rubizhne in the Luhansk region. I have lived in Ivano-Frankivsk for two years. I came here in April 2022. I started volunteering in “SpivDiia. Clothes” and has later became an initiative coordinator. Our whole team consists of internally displaced persons. We are in charge of the space that we dubbed “Store of Kindness”.

Most of us have many clothes we no longer need. We follow the narrative that this is trendy while that is not, and it encourages us to make lots of purchases. Some people can’t do this and they really need clothes. I also faced it when I came to Ivano-Frankivsk with my cat, two embroidered shirts, and documents. I had nothing, so I got some clothes from the intiative as I had no other choice.

Clothes are such an essential need. Even now, after two years, new people keep coming. Elderly people started to visit our space. The other day an elderly woman came, saying, “Girls, I need some skirts for the church.” And it’s so scary; now people can’t even cover their basic needs. When I speak about this, I feel upset.

In summer 2022 I learned of STAN. At first, I met Anton Buravsky, who had been delivering humanitarian aid to our space: car seats, baby food, and diapers (back then diapers and baby food were worth their weight in gold). Anton had been helping us when we needed to ship something by car… We talked, and I kept asking him if they had some job for me. Then Marichka Keliy invited me to help them with a little project. Later Dmytro Kuznietsov invited me to the project “The Way of Resilience”.

I had already worked there when I saw the announcement about the Training of Trainers program within the “Young Diversity Ambassadors” program. I called Dmytro, asking him if I could enroll, if it doesn’t create overlapping interests. He told me, “Everything’s fine. On the contrary, it’s great”. And I was busy working with my area of responsibility. I wasn’t sure if I had time for ToT.

At the first block of ToT, I was thinking, “These people are so experienced. They are all so serious. He is a trainer, and so is she. Lord, what am I even doing here?” It was hard, as there was a lot of new information. But life is all about learning. I tried to connect the dots: if you will do this or that, what would be the results? It’s like a game of chess: you need to think ahead, allowing for different possibilities and their outcomes. Your words or actions will spread across like ripples in the water.

ToT also affects me internally. I love the words of Solomiya Zinets-Matsyshyn, “Here you will hear many ideas which may be different from yours. But that doesn’t mean that your worldview will change. It will expand.” The more I learn, the more my worldview expands.

Then we led our first workshops. I am excited by the youth I worked with. I like how they think and how mature they are. I would like to work in small communities, as I believe that young people in small communities lack the resources. Take, for instance, Ivano-Frankivsk and a village in the Ivano-Frankivsk region.

I am doing this to help other people grow wings. We all need support and empowerment, and it is essential not to be alone. Getting back to the workshops we are leading: first of all people get to know each other, connect, and work together. They will get acquainted at the workshop, and then they will change things for the better together. These are the ripples in the water I mentioned. I would love to be a part of this, to be a grain of sand that contributes to positive social changes.

The project “A network for democracy: Building a future with the European leaders of tomorrow” is implemented by the NGO “STAN” and ActionAid in partnership with the NGO “Center for Social Transformations TENET”, NGO “Insight”, NGO “Chernivtsi Association “Zakhyst” with the support of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Denmark). This project is a part of the program “Young Diversity Ambassadors”

This is a program for youth and youth workers to strengthen social cohesion to create an inclusive, peaceful society, minimize the likelihood of conflicts arising between different groups, and accelerate the integration of young IDPs. The program is implemented by the NGO “STAN” in partnership with the Alliance for Rights, Equality and International Solidarity “ActionAid” with the support of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), Global Fund for Children (USA), Terre Des Hommes (Germany) and IM Swedish Development Partner (Sweden).

Unpacking our past

Almost three years have passed since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The war has been going on for over ten years. Yet, Ukraine had been affected by Russia for centuries, be it the reign of the Russian Empire or the times of the Soviet Union. The latter claimed that it was a union of equals, while in reality, it brought us wars and genocide, torturing, executing, and deporting us. The typical colonialist model was deployed: everything was done for the sake of the all-encompassing economic and cultural Russia’s domination. We had to gravitate to Moscow, and be proud of the “great culture” and “mighty language”. We were expected to listen to Russian music and admire Russian ideas. In the ideal world of the occupants, there would be no independent Ukraine. What the terrorist state had failed to accomplish over the last centuries, it strives to achieve during the invasion. Instead, it accelerates the Derussification and decolonization of Ukraine which go at an unprecedented pace.

Only Schrödinger’s box may contain both dead and alive cat at the same time. We, however, need to understand: till we get rid of someone else’s garbage we store, it would be hard to make room for things that belong to us: memory, identity, values, and vision for the future.
Discarding things mindlessly won’t do the trick. To free ourselves of the colonial burden, we need to have a closer look and unpack it. It will help us to understand what is our own and what was imposed, what is needed and what has turned to dead weight. Anyway, this journey will include discussing and coming to terms with the past, and not blindly denying it. If you close your eyes, it won’t go anywhere.

Yulia Lyubych, Photo: NGO “STAN”

“If we simply forget what had happened, not analyzing how it affected our everyday lives, we won’t be able to move on,” muses Yulia Liubych, designer of the educational program “Young Diversity Ambassadors” (YDA). “That’s why decolonization is an active process. It is not about packing things in the boxes, but about coming to terms with the old attitudes and challenging them. Packing the past won’t do. On the contrary, we need to unpack and reassess it.”

Oleksandr Voitenko, photo: NGO “STAN”

Oleksandr Voitenko, an education expert and a human rights trainer in the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and OSCE in Ukraine, co-author of the handbooks on historical memory, also supports this idea.
“I am terrified when as part of the decolonizing effort we try to erase the Soviet period from the narrative, pretending it had never happened,” Voitenko says. “It’s not like if we forgot Chapayev or Shchors, it would be easier. It is often ridiculous: instead of rejecting heroization and evaluating the past critically, we are erasing it from the memory. This way, we are erasing the times of our parents, grandmas and grandpas… When in STAN we discuss the memory narratives, memory spaces, or memorialization, what we primarily mean is not nurturing hate for communism, but rather comprehending how awful communism and its consequences were. In turn, it helps us to form an opinion. We expect it to be adequate, as human is the measure of things.”

Decolonization and dialogue

Despite the long colonial history, the decolonization discourse in Ukraine is fairly recent. As a result, it is constantly being reinterpreted, both in the country and in the “Young Diversity Ambassadors” program. The approaches regarding the format of research and discussion are constantly evolving. “Decolonization is a new topic. To discuss it, the community must have a lot of reflections,” Yulia Liubych says. “Youth wants to tackle the underrepresented topics.”

From STAN’s experience of working with young people, we know that they deem necessary the existence of media resources, informational or physical platforms for sharing ideas and discussing complicated questions weren’t getting the attention up until recently. “It is indirectly but strongly related to decolonization and finding your own voice,” Yulia explains. “Decolonising means finding your own voice, and you are doing this via the dialogue. Dialogue is a result we would like to see, as it is necessary in a society built on trust, which includes trust in the authorities. It proves that society is able to discuss the future it wants to see, willing to shape this future together.”

Participants of the Young Diversity Ambassadors program, photo: NGO “STAN”

Hutirka

Dialogue has always been one of the key tools for youth projects. Consider that last year organizers of “RepinNASH Fest”, be it consciously or intuitively, went to the suburban trains. They didn’t hold lectures about the prominent artist but rather wanted to talk about him. They wanted to listen to others and express their own ideas. Maybe young people who grew up in an independent country feel aversion to the very idea of imposing or forcing ideas on others. If that’s the case, it’s wonderful.

“A series of interdisciplinary talks about memorialization and decolonization” established by the student organization “Hutirka” was created in the environment of the Ukrainian Catholic University. It is one of the recent projects that utilizes a dialogue approach. “Hutirka” means “talk”. Since its founding, the organization has held talks with interesting people. The first guests were mainly professors who came to talk to their students in an informal setting. Later they started to invite other speakers and experiment with formats. For instance, they organized human libraries.

Visual materials of the Repin festival, Behance: Yulia Danylova

After the “Young Diversity Ambassadors” workshops, the initiative group has planned three more meetings focusing on decolonization and memorialization. There is a word  “interdisciplinary” in the name of the project, and that’s why every meeting will feature speakers working in the different spheres. Building on their experience and expertise, they will search for answers together.

The first talk was held with a therapist, author of the popular psychology books and podcasts Volodymyr Stanchyshyn, and a pianist, journalist, associate professor at the Culturology department in the Ukrainian Catholic University Marta Kusii.

The talk emphasized the importance of psychological recovery during the war, caring about your energy, and discussed how art, in particular music, can help with it. The other topic was rethinking colonial influence both in music and in therapy. For instance, psychological disorders and therapy are still stigmatized in our society. These are lingering remains of the Soviet experience when quality psychological or therapeutical help wasn’t accessible. Instead, repressive psychiatry bloomed. Kusii told about fairly underrated or under-discovered Ukrainian music, which was affected by the metropolia politics which imposed “brands” of Chaikobskyy or other Russian composers.

The first talks were mainly limited to the university environment, but now the discussions are leaving the campus. “The main focus is on psychological recovery. We also want to invite more people than UCU students,” says Iryna Mohetych, head of “Hutirka”. “We’ll be joined by the school students from the small communities and villages and many other people.”

Hutirka on Instagram: @hutirka

Coming back home

You need to remember that decolonization is a long-term process. Every step you take was made possible by all the previous steps. What we do today secures our tomorrow. A striking example is “Portraits of the Luhansk Region”established in 2023. Back then, the team began filming memories of people who had to flee the Luhansk region. They filmed short videos, trying to capture the piece of the puzzle the Luhansk region brought to the image of the whole Ukraine.

Later the initiative group created a short film about Luhansk Regional Academic Music and Drama Theater which was relocated to Siverskodonetsk in 2014 and moved to Sumy in 2022. “The film is more about us wanting to tell the story about the resilience of our people,” explains Yaroslava Hubova who co-produced the movie. “About the lengths they are willing to go to keep the Ukrainian culture alive. We aspired to preserve the initial idea of “The Portraits…” in the film, putting emphasis on people in the theater rather than the theater itself. It is undoubtedly a matter of preserving, capturing contemporary Luhansk culture. Sure, physically it is not on the territory of the Luhansk region, but it is alive among us.”

Movie characters, former and current theater directors and actors discuss theater, how it was, how it is now, how it changes. Why it is needed by spectators and themselves. How it feels when performances get interrupted by the air raid alarms, and how it feels to go back from the shelter on stage to finish the play.

It is also a movie about theater in times of war, and people in times of war. “People in Siverskodonetsk have learned to work regardless of everything,” says Maksym Bulhakov, the theater director. “The most important thing is to work, not letting sadness and melancholy in. You have to accomplish many things, because we may not be here by tomorrow. That’s what sets a mood for work. I believe we have also conveyed this mood to the theater in Sumy.

In our opinion, it was an actor Volodymyr Blahyi who best expressed the essence and role of the theater. “For people coming to us, Luhansk theater is part of the Luhansk region. There are memories about the days long gone when everything was normal. You lived and knew what to expect. You could build plans and dream. I really would like to come and look at the Luhansk theater, forgetting today and coming home for at least 1.5-2 hours. Maybe, that’s exactly why they come to us.”

The project “A network for democracy: Building a future with the European leaders of tomorrow” is implemented by the NGO “STAN” and ActionAid in partnership with the NGO “Center for Social Transformations TENET”, NGO “Insight”, NGO “Chernivtsi Association “Zakhyst” with the support of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Denmark). This project is a part of the program “Young Diversity Ambassadors”

This is a program for youth and youth workers to strengthen social cohesion to create an inclusive, peaceful society, minimize the likelihood of conflicts arising between different groups, and accelerate the integration of young IDPs. The program is implemented by the NGO “STAN” in partnership with the Alliance for Rights, Equality and International Solidarity “ActionAid” with the support of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), Global Fund for Children (USA), Terre Des Hommes (Germany) and IM Swedish Development Partner (Sweden).

Origins of the Young Diversity Ambassadors program and community

The history of STAN has begun in 2008 in Luhansk. Back then, it was a protest literature group that had grown into a non-governmental organization focusing on non-formal education, human rights activism, and supporting active youth and communities at risk. When Russia waged war against Ukraine, STAN had to move their headquarters from Luhanks to Ivano-Frankivsk. At the time, the organization consisted of several people who rented a cramped office on the outskirts of the city. Soon afterward, in 2019, they created one of the main educational programs of STAN: Young Diversity Ambassadors (YDA). Many participants of the first program have extensive experience in the civic sector, volunteering, and managing their own organizations. Some of them have become YDA trainers, mentoring the new generation.

The program itself has grown in scale. The methodology has improved, and the geography has expanded. Initially, it was a local project in the Ciscarpathia region but now, YDA brings together young people from all over Ukraine, including people who had to flee occupied regions or cities near the frontline. The program helped them to reintegrate into civic activism. It allowed people in crisis to get back on their feet, fix their health problems, find housing, get admitted to a different educational program or courses, or even receive long-term psychological support (to learn more, read this text). In times of war, when people are losing their homes, friends, and loved ones, with all of us living in a state of uncertainty, it is important to have someone to lean on. And it is integral to belong to something bigger.

Now Young Diversity Ambassadors has definitely transcended the level of being a national community. Around a year ago it became part of Global Platforms, a network uniting young people from all over the world.

Resource centers: for whom and for what?

Together young people study and implement their projects. They visit each other for experience exchange, internships, and first of all, to communicate and stay in touch. It is integral for them to have someone to lean on, somewhere to be.

For instance, the first resource center opened by STAN on Tarnavskoho St. in Ivano-Frankivsk played a significant role at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. For some people, the center became an office or a coworking, a shelter or a safe space, and to an extent, a volunteering hub for humanitarian initiatives.

That’s why soon after the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion the STAN team has set a goal to establish and equip another resource center in Ivano-Frankivsk. In the summer of 2024, the dream has become a reality. Now it’s a three-storeyed space on Chornovola St., where young people can work, hold workshops, and come to STAN on internships. They are also able to spend some time in safety: the main event hall which can fit up to 30 people is located in the well-fortified basement.

“Recently I opened our group chat and realized that we started making the renovations two years ago. Two years have passed,” recollects Maria Kelii, operational manager of the NGO STAN. “Back then we understood that our space on Tarnavskoho St. no longer covered all our needs.”

The new space was opened on September 21. It was a cozy celebration with the team and closest friends. “We remembered how we got the idea to create a resource center, how we got the resources for that,” Maria says. “We had a lovely celebration together with the team. We also had a brainstorming session, discussing what to bring to the center. Everyone could say what they needed to feel safe, what they were ready to give to the space, how they were willing to contribute. We also had a collaging session with the artist Masha Vyshedska, depicting how we see activism.“

Coming to the office, coming to people

There are two co-working areas in the resource center. The first one is able to host 30 people, the other is a hall with a fireplace on the second floor. There are also offices, 7 bathrooms, and a kitchen. There are rooms where one can spend the night. “When ambassadors from the other Ukrainian cities come to STAN, they can arrive a day earlier or leave later,” Maria Kelii explains. “This way, we don’t have to arrange their accommodation separately. Oftentimes, we lack the budget, but we still have an opportunity to host them, and they feel our care. We appreciate that. We want them to come to the office, but first and foremost, we want them to come to people. To someone who will offer them a comfortable working place, ask if they are not cold, serve them tea. In our times, human relationships are integral. They help us not to feel alone and reduce anxiety.”

On being open and inclusive

These days, different NGOs are holding their events in the resource center. Its doors are opened not only to STAN and its partners. These are workshops, seminars, and speaking clubs. “We held the meetings of the “Young Diplomacy” council in the space,” says Oleksiy Tutov, head of the social politics and cultural diplomacy committee in the aforementioned organization. “They have a projector and you can use any media materials. You can have a small break and go to the kitchen, get some rest, and boil yourself some tea. It’s really cool in there. We are already planning to hold several events in the upcoming semester. Our committee is thinking about debates. We are also talking about organizing movie nights.”

Of course, anyone may get in contact and organize their event or meeting (to do it, fill in the form). If you need it, knock, and it will be opened to you. “I want this place to be a resource for people, particularly for beginner volunteers that don’t have their own space,” says Viktoriya Illesh, the manager of the resource center. “When I was a freshman at the university, I also had such needs. At the time, I couldn’t even imagine the centers that provide you with space for free. That’s how I envision a resource center, a space where you can organize an event, come with friends, or spend some time in silence.”

Viktoriya has recently participated in the “Young Diversity Ambassadors” program. She says that it had a personal influence on her and her perception of civic activism. “I met a whole bunch of interesting people,” she says. “Some were young, some were older. I met a girl who was 15 or 16 years old. She is already part of the youth council and has implemented many projects. That inspired me. It doesn’t matter how old you are, you still can do something cool. Or vice versa, people are 25 years or older and they are only now beginning their volunteering career — it has also helped me understand that it is never too late. Another thing is, I have never really thought about inclusion. But we discussed it at the workshop, and now, whenever I am having a walk in the city, I notice such things.” By the way, at the renovation stage in the resource center, STAN has consulted Mariia Nikitina and NGO “Protection” who has provided the most professional inclusion expertise.

The resource center is a warm, safe, inclusive, and cozy space equipped with modern technology. It’s a place you can come to and implement your ideas. Why not? After all, walls and equipment are worthless without people using them. And it is nice when there are more such spaces.

“We also have a resource center in Volodymyr,” Maria Keliy says. “When we set up this space, we understood we thought about this office and office in Frankivsk as a central headquarters of the organization filled with different resources. There is a space for events. There is equipment we can lend. There are people with multiple years of experience in the civic sector that provide counseling for the activists.”

Movement and calmness

Volodymyr resource center is much smaller compared to the one in Ivano-Frankivsk. However, after a year of young people using it looks completely lived-in. “I am glad that this space exists, and that it finally has begun to work the way I planned for a year,” says Anastasiya Pasalska, the YDA coordinator in Volodymyr. “Young people have finally understood that they can come here when they feel good and bad. To study, spend some time, kill some time, talk or drink some tea. It is cold now, so where should they go? Here is the perfect space.”

After getting into space, we notice a drum set. There is a piano nearby. A sofa, several desks. A girl with a laptop is working behind one of them. “A band holds rehearsals here, and this space may also be used as a coworking,” Anastasiya explains. “And Daria comes here to work.” We greet Daria but don’t want to disturb her from work. “And what a nice wall we have, hand-painted by Ivanka Chuiko,” Anastasiya proceeds.

Young people hold movie club meetings, book club sessions, and board game nights, as well as YDA workshops. It looks like this space belongs to the young people. They are co-creating and contributing to it. If they come here for rehearsals and have the energy to paint the walls, it means they love to work and study here but also to have fun. Показати бічну панель
Last but not least, there are also leisure activities. STAN is currently working to set up a youth resource center in a village in the Ivano-Frankivsk region with easy connections, but far from the hustle and bustle of the city. That will make it a good space for work and rest. Young people can take a walk in the forest and pick mushrooms, get a moment’s peace, recharge, and understand how they feel and where to go next.

The project “A network for democracy: Building a future with the European leaders of tomorrow” is implemented by the NGO “STAN” and ActionAid in partnership with the NGO “Center for Social Transformations TENET”, NGO “Insight”, NGO “Chernivtsi Association “Zakhyst” with the support of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Denmark). This project is a part of the program “Young Diversity Ambassadors”

This is a program for youth and youth workers to strengthen social cohesion to create an inclusive, peaceful society, minimize the likelihood of conflicts arising between different groups, and accelerate the integration of young IDPs. The program is implemented by the NGO “STAN” in partnership with the Alliance for Rights, Equality and International Solidarity “ActionAid” with the support of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), Global Fund for Children (USA), Terre Des Hommes (Germany) and IM Swedish Development Partner (Sweden).

“We proved that we are normal, and they also opened up to us”

I am Dasha. I was often discriminated against because of my sexual orientation. I am a lesbian.

Once I did an internship at the hair salon. I was on the phone with my girlfriend. Girls who worked there for a long time told it to my boss, who reported it to my supervisor. Both of them came to work. They brought us all together, and here we went again: “How could you? It is not right. When you get back to school, I will take you to a psychologist, and she will knock it out of your head.” She said that someone “has to put us over their knee and spank with a belt to beat this nonsense out of us.”

In the end, she didn’t take me to a psychologist (she probably forgot, thank you very much). But I still felt unequal treatment. Often teachers gave me lower grades than I deserved: I didn’t receive a scholarship despite my hard effort. I was also ignored during the assemblies.

Often people think that there is something wrong with us. My relatives made it sound like I killed someone and was about to serve a prison sentence… 

That’s how I got the idea to create the project “Equality Dialogues” which would show that the LGBTQI+ community are people just like all the others. We work, think, and talk like everybody else.

The community often faces discrimination during therapy, at doctor’s appointments, or at meetings with other specialists working with people. That’s why we decided to hold a series of educational events for students to help them understand that it will also happen in their practice. We wanted them to pose all the uncomfortable questions now, in the conversations with “human books”, and not later, speaking to clients.”

The format of the human library or the human books implies that people become the books. They share their experience or answer readers’ direct questions. This conversation provides a whole new level of contact and trust compared to the “communication” with the paper books. During the “Equality Dialogues,” two such events were held at the Zhytomyr universities. Dasha (Daria Rybalko) and project co-creators Anna Kolodnitska and Karina Kolesnyk became the books. The first human library was made for prospective psychologists. “At first we told them about coming to terms with our sexual orientation, and then spoke about our coming-outs to parents, friends, and ourselves,” Dasha recollects. “We talked about ourselves for half a lesson, and then we just chatted with them. We let them know they can pose us any questions.” In addition to two human libraries, during the project, they held two workshops for young people “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity 101”.

Before implementing “Equality Dialogues”, the project creators went to the YDA workshops. “My partner and I attended the basic workshop in the village of Babyn, in Khata-Maysternya,” Dasha says. “It was cool. The atmosphere and people around were inspiring. It was also important for me to have a grasp of all these topics. I am not used to this daily routine, with us beginning work at 9 AM. But it was also a vacation of sorts because there was no connection there.”

Dialogue is always a matter of interaction. It comes as no surprise, then that the target audience of “Equality Dialogues”, young people, prospective psychologists and medics weren’t the only ones changed by the project. Human libraries and workshops have also served as the source of valuable insights for the project creators. “I used to think that most heterosexuals outright hate the homosexual people,” Daria Rybalko shares. “I thought they would approach us with severe discrimination and lack of understanding. That they won’t be accepting. However, after the human library, people actually came to talk to us. Both us and them were interested. Sometimes people have their prejudices thinking it’s bad. But we came to them showing that we are normal, and they opened up back to us.”

On respect and mutual support

Oksana Bohutska is a project manager of the Chernivtsi youth center “Youth Residency”. Together with its team, she has implemented the project “Barrier-free Dialogue” as part of the YDA.

Oksana’s story started with her participating in the inclusivity and accessibility workshop organized by the NGO “Protection”. “I thought that youth workers need to be aware of these topics,” Oksana says. “Basic knowledge is integral for further growth. I also need to understand what’s acceptable and what is not OK during a speech or in everyday conversation. After the workshop, I realized that our city has severe problems with accessibility.”

She has also understood that there are plenty of societal taboos and stereotypes surrounding people with disabilities, including wheelchair users. “There is this stereotype, that if a person uses a wheelchair, it’s over for them….” Oksana muses. “Or think about the slurs often used for people with disabilities. Downie, retard, deaf and dumb… The biggest stereotype of them all claims that they are not OK and need to be separated from the others. It is not OK. It’s not about respect or mutual support. Inclusion and accessibility are totally different. All of us are on equal terms. All of us have the same rights to self-actualization, work, and study.”

After the workshop made by the NGO “Protection,” the participants got the convenient opportunity to study project management. The “Youth Residency” team, Oksana and her colleagues Liubov Prokop and Inna Kirchyk have taken on this opportunity. Later their ideas culminated in the creation of the “Barrier-free Dialogue”. The idea of the project is to create and promote ten thematic videos, such as “Proper communication with people with disabilities”, “Inclusive education: providing equal opportunities for all pupils and students”, and “Mental health and inclusivity: how to discuss the invisible problems”.

It is worth noting that the project was born after the workshop made by the NGO “Protection”, and the organization experts kept in touch with the activists, providing help in the project implementation. “They supported us,” Oksana says. “Serhii Shcherban was our mentor. Maria Nikitina was our advisor: she worked with the texts, checking how they covered the topics, what was right and wrong.”

The series of videos is but the beginning of the dialogue, an invitation to the more profound talk. The first steps should be followed by more. “I realized that the topic is super important,” Oksana Bohutska muses. “There are dozens of taboos and stereotypes. There is plenty of work, lots of preconceptions to debunk. “Barrier-free Dialogue” will be the cornerstone of our upcoming projects. We would like to hold workshops focusing on these topics. To make something bigger. Possibly we’ll even create a brochure, a handbook.”

“This is our life”

Semen Koshovatyy was first engaged in civic activism back in the ninth grade. He was a volunteer at the different events, mainly at the cycling events in Chernivtsi. Later he participated in the “Building Ukraine Together” project and graduated from the Ukrainian Leadership Academy. He was the head of the national office of “Let’s do it, Ukraine”. In 2024 he set up an NGO “Active City Foundation” along with his colleague Liudmyla Romanchuk.

One day, Semen realized that many people in Ukraine don’t understand their rights or political processes. “When I won the project from the NGO “Action Office”, we were attending the advocacy accelerator,” Semen says. “One of our trainers, Oleksandr Solontai, said that the society suffers from the total political illiteracy. Many people, particularly the youth, are not aware of their rights. They don’t know who the prime minister is, what the critical thinking is…” Semen has decided to change it, explaining to the young and prospective voters the basic concepts, such as the branches of government in Ukraine, the duties of the government officials, and their spheres of responsibility. And the most important thing: how to defend your rights.

To improve the situation, Semen Koshovatyy and Lyudmyla Romanchuk have implemented the “Act! Know! Affect!” project that was supported as part of the YDA project. “Act! Know! Affect!” is a series of interactive lectures for senior high schoolers and university students from courses 1-3.

“Before the lectures, we asked some questions to the audience,” Semen says. “And most of them have no idea what happens. That’s why we start with the Ukrainian political system, slowly moving to media literacy and critical thinking. We explained how to analyze the news and political statements. We tried to convey the information and activate their school knowledge to which they were indifferent because back at the time, it wasn’t relevant. We explain that now it is our reality. We begin every lecture by saying that lacking political literacy and not knowing your rights is akin to playing a board game without a clue about its rules.”

Semen plans to keep working on the initiative, improving the lectures, expanding the reach of the project, and teaching the teams that would hold these lectures independently. “At the first stage we can make the events on the level of the city or region,” he says. “We even talked with the head of the youth council working under the regional council. We would like to scale up the lectures to the regional level so that we and members of the youth council would be able to visit other regions.” It is important that the project affects the young people attending the lectures but also Semen and his organization. “That’s how I become self-actualized in my civic activism,” Semen explains. “Prior to that, I either worked on the really local initiatives or participated in someone’s projects. I feel that what we are doing now signifies the beginning of something bigger under my command.”

The project “A network for democracy: Building a future with the European leaders of tomorrow” is implemented by the NGO “STAN” and ActionAid in partnership with the NGO “Center for Social Transformations TENET”, NGO “Insight”, NGO “Chernivtsi Association “Zakhyst” with the support of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Denmark). This project is a part of the program “Young Diversity Ambassadors”

This is a program for youth and youth workers to strengthen social cohesion to create an inclusive, peaceful society, minimize the likelihood of conflicts arising between different groups, and accelerate the integration of young IDPs. The program is implemented by the NGO “STAN” in partnership with the Alliance for Rights, Equality and International Solidarity “ActionAid” with the support of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), Global Fund for Children (USA), Terre Des Hommes (Germany) and IM Swedish Development Partner (Sweden).

Destinations and reasons

Participants of the “Young Diversity Ambassadors” program often travel to visit their colleagues from different regions of the country. For instance, they arrange a trip to the Volyn region or Ciscarpathia, meeting with the local organizations and active members of the local communities and learning from their experience. That’s how new friendships and partnerships are forged. Traveling and communicating are just as important for youth education as workshops or work with mentors.

Recent STAN trips resemble traditional “ambassador” visits, but the scale is different. Young people come not to different regions, but rather to different countries. It allows them to see fundamentally new practices and approaches and look at their own work from a new perspective. Paradoxically, we always find plenty of common traits with the Ukrainian context, despite all the differences. For instance, Kyrgyzstan is a faraway country, but its people also have to deal with the burden of the Soviet legacy.

Each of the four visits had its topic and goals. In Kyrgyzstan, we discussed decolonization and studied the youth work of the local organizations. We went to the Czech Republic to learn of the student protests of the 20th and 21st centuries, studied the experience of the ecological initiatives in Moldova, and familiarized ourselves with the examples of the country’s recovery after the war in Croatia.

Not as tourists

At the same time, with these visits we strived to learn more about the countries, to look at them from a different angle, and to see beyond the surface created by the tourist industry or the Soviet stereotypes. “In a broader sense we did it to discover Moldova,” explains Valeria Tkachenko who facilitated the Moldovan visit. “There is this stereotypical image of a country that grows grapes and apples and brews wine, and other than that, we know nothing about their activities. When asked what they want to see there, people would choose the vineyards. But there are different organizations we can learn from. There is a tight-knit activist sector in Moldova.”

We need to keep in mind that when we get to know each other and learn from others, we also need to speak about ourselves. Dialogue is always a two-way process. “These trips are an important training for us, Ukrainian activists of the new generation. They teach us to build diplomatic relationships with the world,” explains Yaroslav Minkin, co-founder of STAN. “It’s an opportunity to represent Ukraine and debunk stereotypes. It is also an opportunity to study the global context. It’s a conscious decision to choose the little-known countries or the topics which are new for Ukraine.”

It goes without saying that such trips are an opportunity to connect with friends and partners and recharge your energy. Yaroslav Minkin explains, “Another goal is to provide people with a non-working environment where they can foster their bonds, oppose burnout, and remind themselves about this good old-fashioned communication.” It is also a matter of communication with foreign colleagues, people who share your values but utilize different approaches. Such contacts teach you to see more, to think big.

Meetings in Kyrgyzstan

The last trip of the year was travel to Kyrgyzstan which, arguably, was also the most eventful. The participants have been in the country for over a week. They visited the cultural center Kuduk, NGOs Idea Central Asia and Esimide, went to important museums and memorial sites.

“The trip focused on fighting the Russian imperialism and resistance,” muses Kateryna Shulakova, participant of the visit and alumna of the YDA program who currently works as the STAN project manager. “I saw two main topics: culture and decolonization. Not so much about decolonization but rather about the ongoing fight, because there is a persisting Russian influence.”

“Before going to Kyrzguzstan I didn’t know much about the context of Central Asia,” says Anastasia Perepelychenko, participant of the visit and editor-in-chief of Bomedia. “This trip was surprisingly eventful for me, and I returned full of inspiration. The political and activist climate in Kyrgyzstan is harsh, Russia’s influence is much more potent. For the first time, I saw how profoundly Russia as a neighboring country affects all the life spheres. The government had passed the law on foreign agents, which has put the activists under enormous pressure and threat of arrest. It is risky to directly speak about human rights. These circumstances are not conducive to the development of civil society. But I was amazed how people we met keep doing their thing and believe in the power of change.”

Current relations with Russia is by no means the only common feature of civil society of Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. Among other things, we both have to cope with the traumas caused by the Soviet past. “We got to know the Esimde organization,” Valeria says. “They are historians. Prior to the full-scale invasion, they went to the Ukrainian archives, studying how Kyrgyz people were deported to the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. At the time, they started to cultivate cotton there, and they needed people who knew how to do it. If I am not mistaken, it happened under Stalin’s reign. In general, there is plenty of experience we both have to talk about, to come to terms with the broader context of Stalin’s and Soviet crimes. These are atrocious things, atrocious personal stories. Collectivization was such a profound trauma for them… They have their traumatic experience, and we have ours. It is important to have the space for discussion.”

The communication with the members of the IDEA CA organization was also thought-provoking. Often it focused on the tools or approaches that would be beneficial to Ukraine. Some of these topics are IDEA’s work with young people, their media projects, and most of all, their ability to roll with the punches. “IDEA made me understand the importance of a good plan, good politics, and quality documentation,” Kateryna Shulakova says. “For example, they have a plan in case they would be designated as foreign agents. They have built a strategy and communication politics. This organization does thorough preparations.”

“We keep in touch with everyone we met there,” says Kateryna, adding to the topic of collaboration and experience exchange. “We made an arrangement with IDEA Central Asia. They have a powerful media component and we want to learn more of their work. On their part, they want to learn from us about creative fundraising strategies. The foreign agents’ law hinders the activities of international organizations, which prompts them to search for new tools. After the full-scale invasion, we developed a full-fledged donation culture, which is new to them.”

Unity

When asked about the most important aspect of the trip, Anastasia Perepelychenko answers: people. She adds, “I experienced a profound sense of unity with women of the whole world. The women we met were wonderful and inspirational. We must have come from totally different cultures, but I feel that we could find common ground. And I was inspired by feeling part of the global women community. On the last day, girls from IDEA gifted us headscarves. I’ve got an orange one with an illustration depicting several women. It’s a symbol of sisterhood. For me this artifact, this gift encapsulates the essence of the trip. I would like to feel the same in Ukraine. It’s not like we don’t have it, on the contrary. But I found a need to feel support and foster sisterhood in Ukraine. It may sound weird, but it is really valuable for me.”

It is hard to overestimate the role of community, the need to come together. Finding a common ground, coming together, and collaborating have played a key part in the rise of humanity. Long time ago, these things formed homo sapiens. They shape our present and define our future. They allowed separate voices to merge into a voice of the democratical liberal humanity and fight for human rights, that is, the rights of every single human.

Civil society is a manifestation of unity. When we speak about its part, “Young Diversity Ambassadors”, first of all, we speak about the community. Yes, it is an educational community and an opportunity to grow and implement ideas. At the same time, it’s a community which helps the separate voices to become a powerful voice speaking fot the youth. That’s an open community, open to new partnerships in Ukraine or abroad, open to young people who are ready to grow.

The project “A network for democracy: Building a future with the European leaders of tomorrow” is implemented by the NGO “STAN” and ActionAid in partnership with the NGO “Center for Social Transformations TENET”, NGO “Insight”, NGO “Chernivtsi Association “Zakhyst” with the support of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Denmark). This project is a part of the program “Young Diversity Ambassadors”

This is a program for youth and youth workers to strengthen social cohesion to create an inclusive, peaceful society, minimize the likelihood of conflicts arising between different groups, and accelerate the integration of young IDPs. The program is implemented by the NGO “STAN” in partnership with the Alliance for Rights, Equality and International Solidarity “ActionAid” with the support of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), Global Fund for Children (USA), Terre Des Hommes (Germany) and IM Swedish Development Partner (Sweden).