From Copenhagen – the capital of the happiest, politically
and economically most stable countries on the planet, to Severodonetsk – the
administrative center of the most underdeveloped region in Ukraine, which apart
from declining industries has been torn by war during the last 6 years. The
change could not be more contrasting and were it not for my familiarity with
post-soviet societies, I would probably have been appalled or perplexed by many
things.
Photo: Milan Zaitsev
However, despite the lack of comfort, glamour and abundance
of offers and activities in large cities, Severodonetsk is a charming town in
its own way, with its decaying soviet enterprises and abandoned ruins, typical
5- and 9-storey residential buildings lacking maintenance and repair for
decades, old trolley-busses and roads in poor in condition. “It’s like the end
of the world here”, a Belgian freelance journalist said to me. “Actually, every
city here is like the end of the world”, he added after some thought.
Even at the end of the world life continues. People go to
work, kids go to school and the old grannies sell their fresh produce and
pickled vegetables on the market because their pensions are not enough to pay
their bills, food and medicine. 30 kilometers away is a different world: the
front-line, or ‘contact line’ and ‘demarcation line’ as it is more commonly
called among international organizations. The protracted low-intensity armed
conflict, largely forgotten outside Ukraine, continues here on a daily basis.
Working for Vostok-SOS has been a rewarding and
extraordinary experience both professionally and personally. The team is very
motivated and passionate about the work they do. Being internally displaced themselves,
they have dedicated their lives to help others in the same situation and people
who live along the frontline where shelling and shootouts still occur daily
despite the first careful steps of troops withdrawal, prisoner exchange and the
first meeting in the Normandy format in 3 years.
My work here started with communication tasks such as making
content for Facebook and Instagram accounts, feature stories and translations
of reports for the website, but gradually I moved over to translating and assisting
in writing project proposals, communicating with existing and potential donors
and partners.
Photo:Nikola Skuridin
Among some of the most interesting processes I was part of was
the planning and execution of the Opinion Festival in September 2019 – a yearly
outdoors festival that brings together people from different social layers and
regions of country for open debates, discussions and creative events on
important social issues.
In 2019, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) established the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund – a country specific humanitarian pooled fund aimed at addressing the acute needs that are least funded to support the Humanitarian Response Plan efforts. We applied for the first project call within the fund which was a technically challenging and time-consuming process, especially for a multi-cluster project, but the lessons learned and experience gained were valuable. As a part of this process, Vostok-SOS underwent a capacity assessment by OCHA which included the preparation of documents, policies and guidelines of the organization and an interview with a commission from OCHA. We received an evaluation and recommendations for possible areas of improvement.
One
of the exciting moments during my deployment was receiving the news of approved
funding for one of our project proposals. I was actively involved in editing the application and communicating with the donor organization along the way.
The project is aimed at strengthening the capacity of
local self-government in frontline towns of the Luhansk region and consists of an
educational course for the leadership and employees of
local authorities as well as representatives of civil society. During the
course, participants will gain knowledge about the structure, powers and duties of the local self-government and
state bodies, the competencies of effective communication between government and the civil society, resource mobilization
and other competencies necessary for the sustainable development of democratic transformations in local communities. During this
work, government officials together with active citizens will work on
developing strategies for sustainable development of the eastern regions.
