On 28 September, the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine launched a communication campaign titled ‘Together We Learn & Grow’. The campaign is intended to highlight the EU’s support for the education of children and young people in Ukraine during the war, promote the importance of education and showcase the benefits for Ukraine’s education from the EU accession.

The campaign was launched, and its inaugural events took place during the Book Country (Knyzhkova Krayina) Festival. For four days, the EU-funded Educational Space ‘Together We Learn & Grow’ was open. The Opportunity Space and Lecture Hall tents hosted presentations of EU-funded educational projects, competitions, lectures, and musical performances.

On the day of the campaign kick-off, several dozen schoolchildren came to the Opportunity Space to take a quiz about the European Union. The quiz was conducted by representatives of Euroclubs, an initiative that has been consistently supported by the EU Delegation to Ukraine for many years.

Next to it there is a display on digital education, another domain actively supported by the EU in cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Transformation.

Those interested could also learn about the opportunities offered by the EU’s largest educational programme, Erasmus+. Ukrainian universities and students have been participating in it since 1994, but with EU accession, opportunities will increase significantly, and it is worth preparing for this.

Meanwhile, the Collider, an EU-supported edutainment project for children and teenagers implemented by Suspilne, has been running for less than a year but already attracts a significant audience. It was also presented at the launch of the Together We Learn & Grow campaign.

Over the four days of the Learning Space’s availability, it was visited by about 14,000 children and adults. The Together We Learn & Grow campaign will run until January 2025.

In September, two roundtable discussions were held in Odesa and Dnipro to brainstorm and develop policies to support young veterans’ business in Ukraine. They were hosted by the EU- funded project to support young veterans and internally displaced persons.

The project is implemented by a consortium of CSOs: Smart Media, Action Time, Ukrainian Veterans, and SOS Ukraine.

Back in May, the organisers announced a call for applications for young veterans and IDPs to join the project and received a huge number of them – about 600. Among the applicants, 60 participants were selected for project public activities, training and development of their own business plans. Ten of them will receive financial support, and the selection of the winners continued in September.

Veterans have no fear of taking risks, but they lack knowledge, Oleksandra notes. Providing them with this knowledge is the project’s objective, with experts helping the successful participants develop high-quality business plans.

One of the project participants is Anna Rudenko from Boryspil. Before the full-scale Russian invasion, she and her husband, now a veteran, created busyboards – wooden developmental toys of their own design and manufacture. At the same time, Anna knitted large-format toys – custom-made rugs.

The war changed everything radically. My husband was already in the army on February 28, 2022. Our joint business came to a halt.

Later, the couple decided to turn this small venture into a proper business.

Now Anna is waiting for the final results of the business plan competition. She hopes that her idea will be supported and that the veteran’s family will be able to buy an embroidery machine to improve their work.

However, the project has another dimension: establishing a veteran community.

In September, the Stryzhavka community in the Vinnytsia region opened two reconstructed schools in Stryzhavka and Miziakivski Khutory. They have upgraded the thermal insulation of walls and roofs and installed new energy-efficient windows and doors. All this is extremely timely given the power shortage and the expectation of a difficult winter.

The reconstruction of schools in the villages of Stryzhavka and Mizyavski Khutory, worth EUR 380,000 and EUR 205,000, was completed under the Ukraine Recovery Programme, a joint initiative of the European Union and its European Investment Bank, implemented in partnership with the Ukrainian government agencies and UNDP.

Alla Markevych noted that the thermal effect of the renovation was already appreciated by the school staff and children at the end of last winter, when insulation work had just been beginning.

Mykhailo Demchenko, head of the Stryzhavka community, says that the community applied for school reconstruction under the Ukraine Recovery Programme and was successful. However, when it came to the actual implementation, people had doubts about the feasibility of such expensive renovations in times of war.

According to Mykhailo Demchenko, the Stryzhavka community is extremely active in seeking cooperation with international partners.

The European Investment Bank has provided a EUR 340 million loan for the Ukraine Recovery Programme. These funds will help local authorities rebuild social infrastructure and improve the living conditions of internally displaced people and their host communities. Currently, 155 subprojects are at various stages of implementation.

In September, the EU-funded Phoenix project to support civil society organisations in Ukraine was concluded. It was implemented by the East Europe Foundation for over two years.

About 100 people took part in the project’s final conference. In addition to summing up the project outcomes, it was also an opportunity for the participants to share experiences and gain new knowledge in communications, business cooperation, coaching, etc.

The Phoenix Project focused on three areas: building institutional capacity of civil society organisations, supporting them in implementing civic initiatives, and helping them implement digital solutions that improve interaction between communities and the government and citizens. The project directly supported 38 CSOs, and in total, the activities of the subprojects funded under the Phoenix project reached about 440 of them.

For example, in 2023-24, as part of its support for civic initiatives, Together for Successful Business, a civil society organisation from Ladyzhyn, Vinnytsia region, implemented the Hospitable Community project aimed at social adaptation and integration of IDPs.

According to Liudmyla, the activities included traditional Ukrainian cooking masterclasses, pottery and ceramics painting workshops. In addition, the organisation helped IDPs with legal issues, such as recovering documents left behind during the occupation, and organising meetings with officials to help IDPs better understand their rights.

The Kharkiv Volunteer Centre received institutional support as part of the project. Training was provided for employees along with the development of strategic papers. The organisation was able to expand by opening new offices.

The East Europe Foundation is one of the EU’s key partners in supporting civil society in Ukraine.

In September, a number of media outlets from the frontline regions started working under the EU-funded programme called Local Media Relaunch Initiative. It is implemented by the Media Development Foundation.

The active phase of the programme commenced last year in August. Along with the newcomers, 20 newsrooms have received or are receiving support from the programme.

The support portfolio includes training programmes and mentorship, media and content development strategies, and human resources management.

He mentioned several successful examples.

The programme helped the Berdiansk-24 website to bring its content up to journalistic standards, launch new products, and improve its organisational work and fundraising.

Another illustrative case is Kordon Media from Sumy.

Kharkiv-based media group Objektiv is one of the new crop of teams. It was founded back in 2000 based on the news agency of the Kharkiv regional television and radio company Simon. Before the big war, the media outlet was one of the regional leaders.

The active phase of the programme commenced last year in August. Along with the newcomers, 20 newsrooms have received or are receiving support from the programme.

Kharkiv is currently one of the cities most heavily shelled by the enemy, so the work of journalists and independent media there is extremely important. Thanks to the financial support from the programme, the Objectiv hopes to avoid external pressures and maintain editorial independence. The journalists plan to produce a high-quality and relevant content by investing in new equipment, training staff and developing new formats.

12 businesses from architecture, crafts, design and other creative industries have benefited from the Creative Business Boost programme of the EU-funded House of Europe project. They were selected in July in a cut-off competition with more than 240 applicants.

Creative Business Boost is a programme to support small and medium-sized creative businesses to help them take their business to the next level. The winners of the competition received EUR 10,000 in grant support and the opportunity to consult with experts from Ukraine and the EU.

The winners include the Reshetylivka-based Solomia Arts and Crafts Workshop. The business from the Poltava region majors in making embroidered clothing and carpets.

Thanks to Creative Business Boost, the company has mastered a new carpet-making technology called tufting, which required training and procurement of materials. They also purchased fabric for new embroidered clothing collections and made minor repairs to their manufacturing facilities.

Kharkiv-based Ist publishing specialises in books about contemporary culture and art. One of the key goals of their project was to introduce e-commerce, a new business area for the company.