Four projects by students that will receive support from the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and Global Office have been selected at the “YOU Camp – Youth, Opportunities, Unity” summer camp

On September 1-5, 2017, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation’s Zavtra.UA scholarship programme, in partnership with Global Office non-governmental organisation, held its 1^st summer camp, “YOU Camp – Youth, Opportunities, Unity”. 100 students – 50 from temporarily displaced universities from the occupied territories of the Eastern Ukraine and 50 from universities of other regions – have come together to develop 13 projects to improve and unite the country.

Upon the jury’s decision, four best projects will receive funding from the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and mentorship from the Global Office non-governmental organisation. The jury that selected the winners included: Svitlana Grytsenko, coordinator of all educational programmes at the Victor Pinchuk Foundation; Svitlana Kolodiy, coordinator of the GoEast programme at Global Office; Roman Pinchuk, deputy director at EastOne investment and consulting group; and Olga Kudina, corporate and social responsibility officer at Coca-Cola.

The first place has been won by project “GetEQ”, aiming at solving the issue of lack of scientific equipment, its accessibility and information about its availability among researchers in Ukraine. The developers suggest creating an online platform providing a data base on equipment and research services for scientists. The project’s goal is to motivate universities to participate and to increase the number of researches and scientific publications. The team that has developed the project includes: Kateryna Andrych, Kostiantyn Bychkov, Maryna Zaporozhets, Kostiantyn Koverga, Natalia-Maria Kurash, Artem Osmolovsky, Dmytro Ryabko, Olga Chernova and Daria Shevtsova.

The second place has been won by the project entitled #Ucan_indeed, suggesting holding a series of educational events for students to improve their awareness about their rights. The project seeks to alarm the society about violations of students’ rights, and to spread information about legislative tools to control funds and activities of administrations at universities. The campaign implies creating infographics, a video contest, development and spreading of manuals for legal lifehacks. The members of the team are Dmytro Braslavsky, Maria Kalmykova, Mykhailo Panov, Stanislav Rubtsov, Viktoria Sisetska and Aliona Yurchenko.

The third place has been shared between the projects “ART Station” and “Discover Another Reality”.

“ART Station” implies creating psychological and social centres for rehabilitation of children in areas adjacent to the frontline. A pilot project will be implemented in Stanytsia Luganska. Lack of cultural centres and platforms for communications as well as an overall depressive situation of the population cause lowering of children’s socialization and development of negative background phenomena, and limits access to cultural and spiritual development. For this reason, the project suggests creating centres that will provide children with a possibility of psychological rehabilitation through art therapy methods, and ensure comprehensive psychological support for them. The developer team includes: Glib Volosky, Oleksandr Voronin, Serhiy Gorovenko, Maryna Martynenko, Ivan Nevzorov, Yulia Parkhomenko, Snizhana Porokhnia, Olena Toropkina and Vladyslav Shkolnikov.

Project “Discover Another Realities” provides for creating a platform where Ukrainians would share with the international community their unique experience in addressing social conflicts that are result of the information war and propaganda, as well as their experience in solving issues that internally displaced persons face, more particularly, students and administrations of displaced universities. The developers of the project are Vadym Yeremiychuk, Elmar Ibadov, Anton Kalvakh, Diana Kulibaba, Tetyana Kucher, Oksana Radzikhovska and Yana Slobodianiuk.

YOU Camp continues the Victor Pinchuk Foundation’s successful cooperation with Global Office. The first collaboration between the Foundation and Global Office took place at the 10th Youth Forum of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation’s scholarship programmes in June 2017 which resulted in the winners of the Zavtra.UA programme having developed programmes to help address the problems of the inhabitants of Eastern Ukraine.