Displaying items by tag: Ukraine

The UN Volunteers in Crimea celebrated the International Volunteer Day

Volunteer movement – what is it?

On 5^th of December the world celebrates the International Volunteer Day (IVD). Thousands of events and information campaigns take place to celebrate and promote volunteerism this day. United Nations Volunteers always join the movement, and UN Volunteers in Crimea, Ukraine are not the exception.

To honor IVD the UN volunteers in Simferopol presented an information session on volunteerism, its role in the world, and its benefits for social and personal development in the café “Free space Efficiency Factor” on 1 of December. The info session was held as a panel at the BarCamp “Ideas Out Loud” organized by a local NGO the Center for Regional Development “Top Kaya”, and under support of the UNV/UNOSDP/UNDP Project “Young Football Volunteers: Sport and Development for Millennium Development Goals” (YFV).

The first in history of Simferopol BarCamp, dedicated to civil journalism and cooperation between civil initiatives and media, new forms of communication, and UN Volunteers programme gathered around 80 voluntary group activists, students, teenagers, journalists and everyone interested in the topic. The BarCamp gathered speakers not only from Simferopol, but also from Kyiv, Zaporizhzha, Lviv, and Moscow.

The UN Resolution, 2001 was released to support volunteering as a form of civic engagement, and this is not in vain. Drawing upon multiple researches, the global community has realized that volunteering is a powerful factor for human development and development of a state in general. The State of the World’s Volunteerism Report prepared by UNV programme indicates that volunteering is fairly recognized on the state level; at the same time, volunteers’ contribution is incomputable. Between 1995 and 2000, the number of volunteers working through voluntary organizations in 36 countries, taken together, would make the ninth largest country in the world in terms of population.

“Volunteering is indispensable part of human culture globally. The world community recognizes volunteering as powerful development force based on civil society”, - explains Anna Zakharova, National UN Volunteer, Project Development and International Research Assistant at UNDP Sub-Office in Crimea. “In Ukraine volunteering remains hidden – help to relatives and community members, and fairly promoted by media, which places this important resource beyond the reach of youth. According to UNICEF, only 3-4% of Ukrainians volunteer for NGOs. Volunteering provides not only terrific contribution to community development, but also opportunities for personal and professional growth, empowerment, gaining new professional skills and enhanced networking. It is irrational to neglect such an important resource”.

The presentation triggered discussions on the role and forms of volunteering, effective volunteer management necessity, state involvement into volunteering, and other issues. The participants had an opportunity to use various information materials on UN Volunteers programme available at the session. The most active participants received prizes from Young Football Volunteers project: the project’s t-shirts and information materials on HIV prevention, as well as the unique UN MDG comic book in Ukrainian language.

Friendly atmosphere of the BarCamp was even more enlivened by the photo exhibition “Charity through the Prism of Objective Lens” of the all-Ukrainian contest organized by the Ukrainian Philanthropists Forum, photos of YFV project, local volunteers’ activates, and the UNV campaign photo collection “Volunteering Matters” and VolunteerActionCounts. The pictures demonstrate that volunteering is universal and a common traditional practice for people living in Ukraine.

BarCamp is a trendy user-generate open-to-the-public conference, which contains open, participatory workshop-events, the content of which is provided by the participants. Open space interaction of a BarCamp is a great opportunity for networking and experience exchange.

The event was organized by the Center for Regional Development “Top Kaya”. The Center supports local community mobilization and public initiatives for civil society development in Crimea since 2008.

Event:

https://www.facebook.com/events/443403532384262/

Photos:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.419508394788916.98429.124638960942529&type=3

Thank you!

View the embedded image gallery online at:
http://www.volunteeractioncounts.org/en/testimonials/organizations-actioncounts/itemlist/tag/Ukraine.html#sigProGalleriae368fd4beb

Published in IVD Stories

Volunteer movement – what is it?

Volunteer movement – what is it?

On 5^th of December the world celebrates the International Volunteer Day (IVD). Thousands of events and information campaigns take place to celebrate and promote volunteerism this day. United Nations Volunteers always join the movement, and UN Volunteers in Crimea, Ukraine are not the exception.

I as UN volunteer at the UNDP Sub-Office in Crimea together with the UNV/UNOSDP/UNDP Project “Young Football Volunteers: Sport and Development for Millennium Development Goals” (YFV) will conduct an information session on volunteerism, its role in the world, and its benefits for social and personal development. The info session is a panel at the BarCamp “Ideas Out Loud” organized by a local NGO the Center for Regional Development “Top Kaya”. The first in history of Simferopol BarCamp is dedicated to civil journalism and cooperation between civil initiatives and media will take place on 1 of December.

During the session the UN Volunteers programme information materials will be spread out. The most active participants will receive prizes from the YFV project: the project t-shirts and informational materials on HIV prevention and the UN MDG comic book. The participants will also have an opportunity to observe the photo exhibition “Charity through the Prism of Objective Lens” which is the result of the all-Ukrainian contest organized by the Ukrainian Philanthropists Forum, and the materials of the UNV campaign “Volunteering Matters”.

Despite the fact that the term “volunteerism” and “volunteer movement” became a buzz word nowadays, not many are aware about its true meaning. “Unpaid labour” is the first that occurs to mind. In fact, this is not the case. On the international level volunteerism is recognized as a powerful driving force based on strong civil society. Why? The point is that people talk about volunteering aloud and appreciate its value. In our country volunteer movement is like grey economy – nobody tells that it exists, nobody promotes it, let alone understanding its true value. Thus we lose the opportunity to use this tremendous resource for our personal sake and for the sake of our society.

Published in IVD Stories

The "All together" project

I'm Iryna Maksymiv, 24 years old, from Ukraine. Now I'm an EVS volunteer in Poland.
My European Voluntary Service project consists of many interesting elements that require my active involvement. Under the name “All together” the project is about teaching languages to unemployed people in the city of Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Description of the task we are doing is the following: groups are divided according to different levels of language proficiency, the classes are held four days per week, they are one and a half hour long, we work in pairs, the languages taught are English and Spanish.
We have been preparing materials during first two weeks of our involvement. I could say that we volunteers played quite a deal in the project creation and realization. I even caught the fraise that it might be one of the most serious projects in the history of “KIS”, organization with the aid of which we have launched it.
It has been four months I am involved in this project now. It is not easy task at all to instruct languages. One and a half hour of class is sometimes exhausting. There are many aspects of this job to be considered. It is very important to get prepared to each class and offer interesting learning methods to the people aspired to learn. First week was very much an adaptation period. Now there is a phase when it becomes a routine.
I feel lucky for taking participation in such a project. It gives me extraordinary opportunity to use all my resources, knowledge, ideas and give them the right direction. I can’t imagine the job I could do better than this being as a volunteer now. Besides that the opportunity to communicate and share knowledge with the students gives me overall observation of the society, people, country, habits, and different aspects of polish reality.

Published in Your stories

Micro grants support activities related to sustainable living, climate change and the environment

Gaia Micro Grants

SCI IS LOGO The Gaia Working Group was created in 2009 as a working group within Service Civil International (SCI). Its aim is to implement activities and projects related to sustainable living, climate change and environment in general. To better support and empower volunteers, the Working Group has established the Gaia Micro Grant Fund. With this initiative, GAIA intends to support small and concrete initiatives within SCI, both at local and national level, with small grants. Thanks to donations from volunteers and SCI member organizations, the fund was able to support four great environmental initiatives in Hungary, Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Italy in 2011.

Dragon Dreaming - Hungary

Útilapu Hálózat – SCI Hungary organized five Gaia events: eco-village design, green activism, urban sustainable living and greening households, as well as sustainable project planning, all together named ´Dragon Dreaming´. With the enthusiasm and motivation of the Hungarian Gaia group, the sustainable living practices were well integrated into the organization of work camps, networking and other activities of the SCI’s Hungarian branch.

Turtle conservation project

SCI Sri Lanka organized a weekend work camp on a turtle conservation project in Ambalangoda, where 25 volunteers removed all the garbage from nearly one kilometre of beach. The volunteers were aged between 19 and 70 years and came from different ethnic groups (Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala) and countries (Sri Lanka, Finland and Sweden).

GAIA Weekend workcamp 2012 Sri Lanka for ezine Gaia Turtle project Sri Lanka for ezine

Ecodeya event

In Ukraine, SVIT organized the Ecodeya event, where young people enjoyed many great opportunities to learn and talk about bicycles in the urban space, recycling, environmentally friendly household chemicals, vegetarianism, volunteering, peaceful protest, yoga practice and organic food. Additionally, visitors had the opportunity to join workshops on creative recycling, production of hand-made soap and cream, making children’s toys from rope, and cooking vegan dishes and cocktails.

Stay tuned!

Information about the recent project by the Sardinia local group of SCI Italy can be discovered in the next SCI e-zine or GaiaZine. Till then, GAIA hopes for more environmental work camps, and of course for all other camps to be organized respecting the environment. GAIA encourages volunteers to travel to work camps this summer by train and bus instead of plane. The Working Group is always ready to support branches and volunteers with their endeavours for a healthy planet.

If we can do anything for you or your initiative, please get in touch: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. "> This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Published in organizations #actioncounts

No to plastic bags

You can plant a tree next to your house or help to clean the river or the beach. But it takes time, which we usually don't have, especially if we leave in a big city. So next time just refuse the plastic bag in the supermarket! and take action in making our world a cleaner place!

Nastya, Kyiv, Ukraine

Published in Your stories