Solutions to win: Ukraine launches pilot project to assist veterans in four regions

In Lviv, Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, and Mykolaiv regions, a pilot project to create a veteran's assistant institute will be launched in May.

The press service of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs reported this.

Director General of the Directorate of Strategic Planning and European Integration of the Ministry of Veterans, Svitlana Berezina, explained what exactly the institute of the veteran's assistant would perform.

"The Institute of the Veteran's Assistant will function according to the principle of "equal to equal." The duties of the assistant will include individual professional support of veterans during the transition from military service to civilian life.

It is about consulting, administrative work, representation of interests, etc. In simple language, this means guidance and assistance in obtaining certificates, providing information on where and how to complete training programs or, for example, receiving confirmation of existing skills with a certificate, where to get a job, and many other services," the official said.

Berezina said that future veteran assistants would be trained at veteran development centers on the basis of certain higher education institutions.

Special educational programs will be developed in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Culture to train specialists in accompanying war veterans and their family members.

According to the director of the Directorate of Strategic Planning and European Integration, a veteran's assistant should be:

• a citizen of Ukraine who speaks the Ukrainian language,
• lives in the territorial community where the pilot project will be implemented,
• has education at least a junior bachelor's degree.

Priority is given to veterans who will show such a desire, as well as members of their families and families of fallen soldiers.

"The state budget, local budgets, and development partners provide for financing the veteran's assistant institute.

At the experimental stage, the salary of a veteran's assistant will be, on average, 16 thousand hryvnias. For this, funds are laid down in the state budget, provided by the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine for 2023," Berezina added.

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It should be noted that the Ministry of Veterans Affairs presented the educational course "How to find the desired job after military service," which will allow former military personnel to learn where and how to get additional education, find a new job, and receive psychological support in a peaceful life.