Editor’s Note: This story is from the special 30th Independence Day edition of Kyiv Post. Find it online or pick up a copy in Kyiv.
When Ukraine’s government fails its citizens, the people take matters into their own hands.
They have raised revolutions, helped impoverished retirees meet their needs and advanced social progress on issues such as LGBTQ rights.
“Social transformation in Ukraine is on the rise,” Yevhen Hlibovytskyi, the expert on long-term strategies, told the Kyiv Post. “We are in the mode of accelerated development.”
The EuroMaidan Revolution that deposed Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 was a turning point.
“Ukraine was conceived in 1991, and obtained independence in 2014,” Hlibovytskyi said. “We’ve done what was almost impossible to imagine — we actually broke a very long trend of imprisonment.”
Social responsibility
Besides making money, some businesses also want to do the right thing.
“I was always looking for deeper meanings,” entrepreneur Yuriy Fylyuk told the Kyiv Post. “There is always a moment when you realize that just making money is not interesting.”
Fylyuk is the co-founder of three socially-oriented projects based in Ivano-Frankivsk, a city of 237,000 located 600 kilometers west of Kyiv. They include development platform Teple Misto, community restaurant Urban Space 100 and impact investment center Promprylad.Renovation.
Since its launch in 2015, Teple Misto has successfully financed 43 projects and spent almost $371,190 in 2020 on various city initiatives. The organization attracts funding from businesses and grants.
During its six years of existence, Urban Space 100 spent $126,539 on 127 projects like planting trees, creating courses for children with disabilities, restoring historical buildings, developing Ivano-Frankivsk’s cultural life, launching Urban Space Radio and many others.
Fylyuk says that such restaurants usually peak in their second year. But Urban Space 100 is still going strong in its seventh.
Promprylad.Renovation focuses on four development areas: socially conscious business, urban planning, contemporary art and education. The project is meant to raise up the region from its post-Soviet hangover into an era of modern sustainable development.
Equal rights
The invisibility and vulnerability of LGBTQ people is gradually giving way to mass events that engage a wide audience.
Human rights marches are now held in Kyiv, Odesa, Kryvyi Rih, Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhia and Chernivtsi.
The latest march in the capital on June 23, 2019 gathered a record 8,000 attendees.
However, it wasn’t always like that.
The first attempts to organize an Equality March in Kyiv in 2012 were in the shadow of physical assault threats from ultra-nationalist activists.
A major shift took place in 2016, when, for the first time in Ukrainian history, police took over the protection of Equality March.
“The fact that they are protected by the police is a very good indicator because 10 years ago we couldn’t dream of such a thing,” Anna Dovgopol, the gender democracy program coordinator of the Kyiv office of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, told the Kyiv Post.
The mass media is also gradually moving away from the use of outdated terms for the LGBTQ community.
“The tone of the Ukrainian press has changed a lot, Ukrainian journalists became the first allies of the LGBTQ movement in Ukraine,” Andrii Kravchuk, the advocacy expert of LGBTQ Human Rights Center Our World, told the Kyiv Post. The organization, functioning for 21 years, documents crimes based on homophobia and publishes reports on the situation of the LGBTQ.
The community can also take refuge in the countless raves, which are gaining in popularity. However, every action seems to provoke a reaction. Some Ukrainian churches that stand for so-called “traditional values” have opposed LGBTQ rallies.
“If it weren’t for the propaganda of the churches, I think that Ukraine would be a much more advanced state,” Kravchuk says.
Participants of the volunteer program “Building Ukraine Together” (“Buduiemo Ukrainu Razom” – BUR) rebuild a house. Having started as an initiative to rebuild homes destroyed by Russia’s war in the east, the volunteer organization now renovates abandoned areas and rebuild homes all across Ukraine. (Yura Evtushko/Buduiemo Ukrainu R)
Environmentalism
The public is more environmentally aware with each passing year.
People increasingly use more bicycles, give up using plastic bags, dispose of batteries and sort garbage. Many coffee shops offer a discount for customers who bring their own cups.
The Ukrainian organization Ekoltava, which operates throughout Ukraine, has been educating people on how to sort garbage and recycle waste since 2013.
Over six years, nonprofit Let’s do It, Ukraine — part of the Let’s Do It World movement — has united more than 2.5 million Ukrainian citizens who are active in social projects.
“You can volunteer based on what you can do,” Iuliia Markhel, the founder of Let’s Do It Ukraine, told the Kyiv Post. She says that people can help the environment by volunteering in marketing, management or even social research.
During the 2020 World Cleaning Day in Ukraine, held annually on the third Saturday of September, the organization teamed up with 138,920 participants in 24 oblasts of Ukraine who cleaned more than 763.7 tons of garbage out of 2,138 locations. They also recycled around 180 tons material.
“Our mission is to build a culture of cleanliness, caring for the environment and conscious consumption,” she says.
Volunteer movement
Since the EuroMaidan Revolution the percentage of Ukrainians who give money to charity has shot up to 47% from 26% by some estimates.
“Our history pushes us to be empathetic,” Hlibovytskyi says. “Empathy is a component of modern Ukrainian identity.”
Participants of the volunteer movement Building Ukraine are literally trying to rebuild the country.
It first emerged as a volunteer initiative in 2014, restoring houses destroyed by Russia’s war in the east. Now it operates all around Ukraine, helping families to rebuild homes, creating open spaces in abandoned areas and offering educational programs for volunteers.
“Our idea is to take small practical steps to convey to society the idea of mutual assistance and responsibility,” Yurko Didula, the Building Ukraine’s manager, told the Kyiv Post.
During seven years, the movement has volunteered in 79 settlements, renovating about 300 apartments with the help of about 4,500 volunteers.
There are many other initiatives that promote charity in Ukraine.
The country now even has its own Giving Tuesday. The global generosity day originated in the U.S. to promote charity on Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
In Ukraine, the initiative has united 176 nonprofits helping those in need. Every year on Giving Tuesday in late November, hundreds of businesses and millions of volunteers join charitable activities in Ukraine.
“The main message is not to expect that society will start to change. What happens around us depends on each of us,” Didula said.
