From healing the scars of war to training drone pilots. We have collected solutions that started the year with a mood for Victory!
January turned out challenging but also full of solutions. The year 2023 for Ukrainians began with shelling, but also with determination — to do everything in our power to bring victory closer. And indeed: every day, Ukrainians find new and new solutions that help overcome the consequences of the russian invasion and protect themselves from it.
Rubryka collected the most interesting stories of January's solutions in this material. So we started this year with the following questions:
Learn yourself and teach others: how first female drone pilot school works
A girl controls a drone. Facebook photo by "Female Pilots of Ukraine"
The war in Ukraine, which has been going on since 2014, encourages finding new solutions to the problem of military support. Especially now — since the war in 2022-2023 is characterized by the use of new weapons and equipment. Among them are drones, which Ukrainians hear about almost every day. They can perform purely reconnaissance work and adjust artillery or self-destruct, causing significant damage to the target.
But while receiving and purchasing drones from partners, the country faced another problem — the lack of pilots and female pilots who could fly them.
Previously, the majority of students at drone operator schools were men. But last year, it changed because the first school for female drone pilots appeared in Ukraine. Read about how it works and how you can get into the training here.
Breaking Cycle of Violence: how women's shelters work in wartime
Tetyana Zotova talks about receiving IDPs during the battle for Kyiv
With the start of a full-scale war, domestic violence became less talked about. According to statistical data law enforcement agencies received 27.5% fewer reports of domestic violence than during the same period in 2021. But despite the decrease in documented cases, activists claim the real number has not decreased.
Domestic violence continues to exist in Ukraine even during a full-scale war. And shelters for female victims of violence continue to work even under fire. Some of them reformatted their work; some continued to work as before. Rubryka told about the experience of such shelters during the war.
"Feeling like citizens": how public organizations adapt to conditions of war
Before February 2022, most public organizations had clear plans for the year. But everything changed with the start of russia's full-scale war. Shock, NGO workers evacuating to other regions and countries, and deaths, injuries, destruction, and worsening of diseases due to stress undermined public organizations' work and significantly affected NGOs working with people with disabilities.
But many organizations managed to restructure their work in accordance with new challenges. Among them is the NGO Vinnytsia City Organization for Social Development and Formation of Individual Underprivileged Categories of Youth, Parostok (means "sprout"). Today Parostok not only continues to work with vulnerable segments of the population but also helps colleagues find the strength to work in difficult conditions, adapt to new challenges and make the work of NGOs more effective.
Learn in our material how Parostok teaches other NGOs to work in new conditions (and what exactly they teach).
Volunteer Drone Factory: how engineers approach Ukraine's victory
"War of drones" — that's how the military and journalists christened the full-scale war in Ukraine. Earlier, the enemy's positions were "observed" by reconnaissance aircraft. UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles, — ed.) are doing this job now. They are various: from massive "kamikaze" drones that carry explosives or shells to small "birds" that become the eyes of our defenders.
Eleven months ago, a small company of engineers united in Kyiv. These guys didn't know how to hold a gun, but they could create drones for the Ukrainian military. Their drones are sent to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Defense Intelligence, border service, and other units that defend Ukraine. Since March, engineers have already made about 800 "birds," which were handed over to our defenders.
Learn about how volunteer Dronary Factory turns civilian "birds" into military ones is in Rubryka's material.
How to evacuate bees
The Ukrainian government considers beekeeping a strategic direction in developing agriculture in Ukraine. In addition to the fact that a significant number of people are involved in this industry in Ukraine, beekeeping is of great importance for pollinating crops and increasing their yield, which substantially contributes to our country's economy. Beekeeping in Ukraine is an export-oriented branch of the economy, and our state is consistently among the top five honey suppliers in the world.
At the same time, many beekeepers suffered because of the war. Due to the difficulties of relocating beehives, shelling, and damage, they may stop their business forever. But we should not give up — many beekeepers have found ways out of the most challenging situations and rescue beneficial insects despite everything. Read Rubryka's material about how they do it (spoiler alert: bees are saved by different means — they are evacuated on GAZelles, temporary beehives are arranged in ammunition boxes, and that's not all).
How to bring Ukrainian history closer
What do you know about the guy a nearby street is named after? And what do you tell your friends from other cities about yours when they come to visit? In fact, the names of our streets are more than landmarks. They reflect not only our history but also how we interpret it.
Ukrainians need streets with Ukrainian identity. Ukrainians need knowledge of their own history and the interrelationships between events — not to give any chance to return to foreign culture or history in the future.
History lives in specific names, is connected to particular events and is reflected in urban spaces. The participants of the project "Streetcode: history at every turn" united around history in the city spaces and to fill the gaps in the historical memory of Ukrainians. Here Rubryka told about initiative's activity.
"Donetsk Women's Council": how public organization from Mariupol helps IDP women
Today, Ukrainian women stand in defense of their country. Someone bravely went to defend it on the battlefield. Someone protects their children and elderly parents on another front and continues to work for the good of the country. They are helping Ukraine survive, but they may need help too.
This especially applies to women with the status of internally displaced persons. They lost their homes, personal belongings, and property. Today, many organizations and initiatives are already aimed at helping IDP women. One of them is the Donetsk Women's Council, which recently moved from Mariupol, Donetsk region, to the western part of Ukraine, the Zakarpattia region. About how to move a public organization to the other side of the country and find the strength to continue helping women — already in new military conditions — read in Rubryka's material.
I have no home: how to help homeless in winter
Since the beginning of russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the number of Ukrainians who have lost their homes has increased dramatically. At the beginning of July, the authorities released data: about 800,000 Ukrainians were left without apartments and houses due to russian military aggression. Some of these people ended up just on the street.
So, where should the homeless go in the cold? Where will they be accepted? Who in Ukraine cares about them? And how can each of us help people who are homeless and freezing on the street?
Rubryka answered all these questions.
How Ukrainians are helped to get rid of scars of war
War leaves scars — on the cities, our psyche, and the skin of thousands of Ukrainians. The latter is not only a matter of aesthetics. Scars remind people of their most difficult days and prevent them from living in reality, not in memories.
Modern plastic surgery can hide the unpleasant marks left by the war on people's faces and bodies. Ukrainians can get rid of their scars for free thanks to the NoScar initiative, which united volunteer doctors from all over the country.
Any Ukrainian man or woman who suffered from hostilities and now has scars can get professional help and eliminate unpleasant memories of terrible events.
Rubryka tells in its material about the NoScar initiative, which united the best plastic surgeons.
How Ukraine's youth community is created
The crisis is a time of great risks and losses, but at the same time — of bigger opportunities. Youth, as the driving force of Ukrainian society, is developing our country amid the war in various directions, in particular in the ranks of the Armed Forces, volunteering, IT, communications, creativity, and psychotherapy.
But they often need help with this. This is how the Bank of Ideas initiative, the pilot of which in 2021 ended with implementing seven mini-projects in the field of innovation and inclusion, appeared. This year, young changemakers united within the humanitarian response framework to restore our country. Participants from 14 teams and 6 regions of Ukraine (Lviv, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Chernihiv, Ternopil, Poltava) attended a school of grant writing and project management. They brainstormed at an ideaton about possible projects in the field of humanitarian response in their community, and at the final stage of the residency, intensively worked on their ideas and turned them into full-fledged projects, for which they received grant support.
Read in our material about what solutions young people across Ukraine are finding today for their peers.
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