Solutions journalism works: Rubryka’s 10 best articles in April

For Rubryka journalists, April was marked by indomitability — we collected stories about those who do not bend under the pressure of circumstances but continue life with new strength. Young mothers who were forced to leave their homes; military personnel who lost limbs in the war; older adults who found a way to support defenders despite everything; teenagers uniting for the sake of the future in Ukraine. Unbreakable. 

Rubryka collected the most interesting stories of April in the following piece.

Unbreakable mothers

Lviv has become one of the largest hub cities for IDPs because a wave of war-frightened people rushed there. To accommodate, calm, and warm Ukrainians from the east, quick and effective solutions are needed.

In July 2022, the mother and child center Unbreakable Mothers was created for pregnant displaced women who fled the war to Lviv. Learn about the center's activities here.

Neopalymi aesthetic medicine initiative

"I'm 38, my life is crippled, and I don't know how to live with it… I cry a lot. It's impossible not to cry. I'm pulling myself together because I have a five-year-old son who needs me. I want to return my beauty so that I would not be ashamed to go out with him," says Natalya, who met Russia's full-scale invasion in Mariupol and paid for the Russian invasion with her own face. There are hundreds, thousands of stories of Ukrainians mutilated by the war.

She is currently undergoing rehabilitation thanks to the Neopalymi initiative. Neopalymi is a new Ukrainian initiative in aesthetic medicine that aims to help as many Ukrainians as possible who have suffered burns or scars due to the war. Volunteers of the initiative attract clinics that will be able to provide the patient with a full course of treatment, providing these clinics with drugs and technical and material needs. Such a course is completely free for the survivors. Rubryka tells about the solution.

Unbroken warriors

Manufacturing prosthetics and rehabilitating patients with amputated limbs has been done in Ukraine before. But war is a particularly harsh catalyst for the medical field, requiring solutions to problems that were not pressing before. There is still no established practice of coordinated amputation, prosthetics and subsequent rehabilitation in Ukraine.

A person who has lost a limb needs more than just a prosthetic replacement. Rehabilitation is a complex and lengthy process. It begins not from the moment of installation of a new limb, but during amputation. Communication between surgeons, prosthetists, rehabilitators, and psychologists who work with the patient is essential.

UNBROKEN is a medical project in Lviv that combined all these processes and ensured communication between doctors for the consistent recovery of patients. Rubryka tells how the initiative works here.

Communication despite the distance

During the first 10 months of the full-scale war, more than 14.5 million Ukrainians left Ukraine. Because of the war, about a third of its citizens found themselves outside the borders of their Motherland. 

Most who have escaped the war abroad dream of returning home, but reality dictates other conditions for forced emigrants. Full integration is almost the only possibility to live, raise children, work, and develop in a new place. There is another side to this process — mastering the language and culture of another country, and Ukrainians risk losing knowledge and memory of their own. But Ukrainians, as always, find a solution. Rubryka learned how Ukraine keeps in touch with its citizens abroad thanks to digital and cultural projects.

Volunteering school for teenagers

Anya is 13 years old. Last year, she and her family had to move from her native Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region to Vinnytsia. An unfamiliar city, the absence of friends nearby, and the war are quite a test for a child. Moving away from home due to the war and being forced to study online — Anya admits that because of all this, she missed live communication. Despite everything, she wanted to help others, be helpful, and do something. Anya is not the only one in this desire. 

According to Olena Kravchuk, trainer and author of the Volunteering School project course, teenagers desire to join the volunteer movement in Ukraine but need help understanding how to do it. In addition, they require communication and seek to find new acquaintances — currently, many young IDPs have lost ties with friends, relatives, and familiar circles of communication.

The Donetsk Regional Children and Youth Center (DODMC), currently under evacuation in Vinnytsia, implements a solution that gives teenagers, especially IDP teenagers, space for this. It helps understand the intricacies of volunteering and, at the same time, to help adapt to a new place. Rubryka tells how the project works.

Teenagers can

The fact that teenagers strive to find new and new ways to help Ukraine is proven by the many projects they have already launched.

Stress due to the war, losses, change of residence, and separation from relatives and friends — these realities today have affected Ukrainian teenagers. However, no matter how hard it is psychologically, Ukrainian teenagers do not give up. Living through the experience of war on the same level as adults, they are ready to do everything to bring the victory of Ukraine closer and help their country to endure and recover.

Rubryka collected the most interesting initiatives and tips on how teenagers can get involved in volunteering.

Grandmother's battalion

Retirement can often be a period of social isolation and loneliness for elderly people. The full-scale war in Ukraine deepened problems faced by Ukrainians who have reached their golden years, but at the same time, it once again emphasized that pensioners are willing and able to have an active life, work, and even take action to support the country's defenders.

Retirement age is not an excuse to stay out of business. Senior citizens also want to help, support, and bring Ukraine's victory closer. The support of this enthusiasm benefits not only the defenders, but also to the pensioners themselves. 

Such solution was found in the Zhytomyr region. Here, older adults have united in the Grandmother's Battalion and are making every effort to ensure that Ukraine wins. At the same time, they are building a strong community of mutual support. Rubryka tells about how the solution works.

Recovery for heroes

Defenders of Ukraine risk giving the most valuable thing in the fight for their Motherland — their lives. Every day, they are exposed to risk, protecting Ukrainians, and often pay for it with their health, getting wounded and injured. Society has to help them recover and get back to life.

At the beginning of March, the RECOVERY rehabilitation center for wounded soldiers was opened on the basis of the rehabilitation medicine department of one of the Dnipro city hospitals. Doctors working there with patients since 2020 have received even more equipment and opportunities for their work. More than 600 wounded people will be able to undergo rehabilitation here in a year. Rubryka's reporter visited the center and spoke with its patients and employees.

Air-defense in your pocket

Ukraine's air defense forces have been shooting down enemy missiles and drones for over a year of full-scale war. The volunteer design group Technari developed the smartphone app ePPO to make the Ukrainian sky less vulnerable. Using ePPO, anyone can transmit information about enemy missiles, drones, or aircraft in real time. The Ukrainian air defense forces receive this data and can act on it to shoot down the enemy target within seconds.

Rubryka spoke to Gennady Suldin, co-developer of the ePPO app about the developers' plans to prevent Russia from even daring to launch missiles at Ukraine.

Future wins

This story made every member of Rubryka's team smile this month. We are sure that you will like it too. This is April's cutest solution! 

Svyatoslav Lavrynenko, a sixth-grader from Kyiv, is already an entrepreneur. While completing a biology assignment on seed germination, the student got so enthusiastic that he created an eco-farm in the family apartment. Now he grows onions, arugula, and basil. In just a few days, his Telegram channel Struchok gained so many subscribers that customers are already standing in line, booking greens months in advance.

Read about the young entrepreneur and his business in Rubryka's piece.