As the summer heat is finally shifting to more moderate temperatures, the Ukrainian Vibes project is entering its final stage of summarising the results and giving the last thank you and goodbyes. But wait for it, we have some news for you at the end of the article!
To jump back to the start of the project, our team was put together in April 2022 by the three partner organisations DI, NECU and CC within the qualification programme ASA, an initiative by the German service for development organisation Engagement Global, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. The idea was to create a project to increase intercultural communication and general awareness about sustainability, democracy, and its difficulties within and beyond the borders of the EU. As during the first edition of Ukrainian Vibes in 2021, the project was and is once again based on an exchange between the two partner countries, Germany and Ukraine, and creates a wider understanding of global issues, as well as sensible communication between these two cultures. The project, created by Democracy International in Cologne and the partner institutions in Ukraine, the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine (NECU) and Change Communication (CC), is coming to an end in September 2022.
Already our team reflects the intercultural exchange and equal collaboration that every international project should see as its point of departure. It consists of two Ukrainian and two German participants focusing together on the challenge of connectivity of citizens within and beyond the EU borders.
Anna, from Kyiv in Ukraine, has a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics. With her huge knowledge of history, she is our expert on one of the main topics of the tour, difficult history. Nele, a social scientist from Saxony in Germany, knows not only how to understand social difficulties and aspects but is also a great organiser and manages the structure of the project. Olha, from Kyiv in Ukraine, is doing her masters in environmental science and puts a lot of creative input into the project next to her studies. Katharina, the last participant, is from the South of Germany and has a bachelor’s degree in physics. With her technical knowledge and her ongoing journalistic studies, she’s predestined to set up the website and its contents. Our coordinator Anne from Democracy International works as our advisor and helps us a lot with her knowledge about project management and other difficulties that occur during the project implementation. In addition to that, our partners in Ukraine, NECU and CC supported our project with their expertise and in cooperation, and we helped them by spreading a form to detect crimes against the environment.
Since the end of Ukrainian Vibes last year in the summer of 2021 and the start of Ukrainian Vibes 2022, a lot of things have happened. New participants have been selected, the project has been rebooted and the Covid-19 restrictions are finally almost lifted. But when the 2022-team came together in April, the full-scale war had just begun.
Our team set helping Ukraine as much as possible with this project as the main goal. The Ukrainian Vibes project is mainly about an intercultural exchange, but now with the war present, we were trying to create awareness, not only about the general situation and the serious consequences of war, but we aimed at finding solutions and promoting possibilities for action for the hopefully near future post-war situation in Ukraine. We wanted to collect the stories of Ukrainians first-hand and allow everyone outside of Ukraine to understand their situation as much as possible by asking questions directly to Ukrainians. The project isn’t about making anyone feel guilty or powerless by a lack of engagement. Instead, our emphasis is to identify roads towards feeling responsible and display possibilities of taking action. It is about adopting a different point of view. Keeping that in mind, this year’s project is even more important than one could think at first sight.
To achieve these goals, our activities culminated in four offline and three online discussions within the European Public Sphere initiative, bringing together as many participants as possible regardless of their origin or their age.
We started with the offline tour at the end of June, visiting Cologne, Berlin, Krzyzowa and Wroclaw. There, we conducted discussions on the topics of difficult history, civic participation, environmental consequences and human rights during the war. Each time the talks took place in the Europe Dome, a wooden cupola that creates a safe space to share and come up with new ideas. In total, we brought together 60 people from 17 different countries under the roof of the Europe Dome. The participants were especially eager to learn about the difficult past of Ukraine and share their own stories and associations, speculating about various ways to stay engaged such as education or saving energy.
As we proceeded to three online events on the first three Thursdays of August, a total of 174 people registered for the online events and in each meeting, 35 to 55 people participated. Ukrainian Vibes united citizens of all ages and from multiple countries in Ukraine, Europe, Asia and Africa. We, invited experts and participants were touching the topics of the difficult history of Ukraine, civic participation and environmental consequences of the war. As it was our purpose to create an exchange, everyone had the opportunity to share their experience with everyone. Our team was thrilled by the enthusiasm and openness of the participants. During conversations, break-out rooms and also when using Mentimeter we found out people were incredibly motivated to talk about digital ways to participate, initiatives for sustainable development in Ukraine and the possibilities for people with different backgrounds to have discussions and exchange ideas.
Shown is the Ukrainian Vibes tour stop in Berlin on July 17, and the participants are discussing human rights topic and civic participation.
The presentation regarding memorisation practices and IDP given by Dr Viktoria Sereda, the invited expert.
For sure, this project was a journey of learning for all of us, as well. Anna points out that she learned a lot in a professional sense and also is stunned by people’s interest in Ukraine and its culture, which motivates her to do more. For Nele, the project broadened her skills in project management and the moderation of multinational discussions. The willingness of the participants to actively shape society to move to a peaceful, democratic and sustainable future inspired her. Olha gained a broad spectrum of knowledge from managing such a project in an international team. She was impressed and motivated by all the support from experts. The full-scale war in Ukraine was not the easiest set-up to begin this project, but it was a situation that taught Katharina a lot about the necessity of support in a team, international cooperation, and the presence of basic humanitarian laws like press freedom.
While our team of four says goodbye to you, Anna will stay at Democracy International, supporting the team in other democracy projects. Nevertheless, we are thrilled to announce that Ukrainian Vibes will be revived next year and wish the future team to have the same unique experience as we had. We sincerely hope that next year’s Ukrainian Vibes edition will involve a peaceful and sustainably recovering Ukraine.
Glory to Ukraine and see you next year!
Goodbye from the Ukrainian Vibes team! From left to right in the picture are Nele König, Olha Mordiuk, Katharina Bews and Anna Proskurina.
Written by Anna Proskurina and Katharina Bews.
Translated into Ukrainian by Anna Proskurina and into German by Katharina Bews.
