Age: 28
Education: Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theater, Cinema and Television University
Profession: Coordinator at Druzi creative free space
Did you know? Sosnytska hates being called Natasha
An optimist by nature, Natalka Sosnytska loves her hometown boundlessly and believes in its bright future.
Her dream is to give a second life to Kostiantynivka, a city of 77,000 people in Donetsk Oblast, some 680 kilometers southeast of Kyiv. It was once a working industrial center but is now filled with abandoned factories and plants.
“I always wanted to do something good for Kostiantynivka,” said Sosnytska.
In January 2017, she came up with the idea of creating a youth platform for cultural and artistic development. The project was called Druzi (friends in Ukrainian) and launched with the help of the U. S. Agency for International Development.
Unlike Sosnytska, who is fighting for a better future for her hometown, her parents moved to Kyiv in 2014 when Kostiantynivka was occupied by Russia-backed separatists for two months and are still not ready to return.
Sosnytska agreed to rent a small community space downtown for a symbolic Hr 1 per year from local authorities. It is now a busy place full of social activities: trainings, workshops, lectures, games, music or simply coffee-drinking.
Druzi currently cooperates with 13 schools and three technical colleges from Kostiantynivka.
“We are not supermen, but we’re working mainly with youth when their system of values in life is just forming, and I see how many cool projects they make,” said Sosnytska, whose goal is to change the thinking of people who are used to living in a depressive town.
Previously, not so many people were interested in visiting Kostiantynivka as there was nothing like Druzi.
“We became as a space for local people but also for city guests who want to meet people from Kostiatynivka,” said Sosnytska.
Besides the space already operating, the activist and her team plan to expand the project. Sosnytska rented a much bigger space in another poorly managed building, but it requires tens of thousands of dollars to provide heating and water to make the space operational. But Sonsnytska is not deterred and plans to use the building for social entrepreneurship, a hostel and even a café in addition to regular activities.
Druzi has garnered attention from many non-governmental organizations and donors, which has been very helpful for the project’s ability to hold events aimed at the revival of the activist’s hometown.
Sosnytska’s favorite event is The Most Fest, which for two years has brought artists, sculptors and popular musical bands to an abandoned hangar of the former industrial giant Autoglass near the bank of the river Kryvyi Torets. In 2017, it was a one-day festival that hosted around 400 local residents. A year later, it was already a two-day event with 2,000 people coming from across the country and even from abroad.
Yuko and TseSho, popular Ukrainian bands, are two of the acts that participated in 2018.
“In 2020, The Most Fest will involve four neighboring cities,” said Sosnytska.
In addition, Druzi already has helped five local entrepreneurs receive grants and expand their activities in Kostiatynivka. Among them are a printing shop, a construction firm, a woodworking enterprise and a sewing workshop.
“We are helping people to ruin their internal barriers, find opportunities and use them,” said Sosnytska.
