The project "One Makes a difference", the second encounter of which took place recently in Macedonia, was aiming to show young people that every particular person has a choice to fight and resist discrimination, and even stand against the whole inhuman system. Ukrainian participants Mariia Petrenko and Andrii Zabolotnikov sharing their experience in this post.

We were divided into international teams, and started our week with sport exercises and team-building games, that helped us to become friends. After that we had a workshops about discrimination. For example, ee discussed what we know about this phenomenon and who has ever faced it. We also did a small role-play, where one group was playing role of immigrants, explaining why they should be allowed to enter the country, and another group were authorities, who argued it shouldn't be done. We felt how difficult it can be to reach an agreement sometimes, even in question on which people's life depend.

Evening free time we spent having international movie-nights and discussions. We watched such movies as "Трето полувреме", a story of a Macedonian football player who fall in love in Jewish girl during the Nazi occupation in World War II. The second movie was «Hidden figures», which was dedicated to the problem of segregation and sexism in America in the middle of the XX century. 

During the project each team did a research and presented stories of their nation representatives who could make a difference by themselves. Who stood against the unfair systems that they had to face in the first half of XX century in Germany, Macedonia and Ukraine. We did the research during our meetings in Prenzlau (October, 2016) and Struga (April, 2017).

During the week in Struga we had a meeting with local school students and participants of another youth project, where we presented first results of our work. Ukrainians made a short guide-tour on their posters dedicated to  lives of Anton Makarenko and Andrii Sheptytskyy. Germans made presentations about life and ideas of Rosa Luxemburg and Oskar Shindler. Macedonians presented a drama about discrimination. 

During the project we had enough time to talk to participants from other countries, so no we can say for sure: we have true friends abroad. Which was also an important goal of this project.

Text: Andrii Zabolotnikov
Photo: Mariia Petrenko

The project "One Makes A Difference" is aimed to develop civic activism of young people from Ukraine, Germany and Macedonia.  It als aimes to increase their awareness about the problem of discrimination in the period of Worls War II. In all that chaos and cruelty of the war years that took place not only in Europe abut also far beyond its borders there were people who managed to stand alone against terror and discrimination in politics and society. The purpose of this project is to study and present cases of peaceful resistance towards discrimination, stories where civic courace of one person brough a big change. 

During this projetc young people will do research work, and in the end they will present an exhibition dedicated to personalities who stood agains discrimination in three countries. It is also planned to have two meetings during which youngsters will participate in workshopsm training activities and learn more about each other's cultures. 

The first meeting took place from 5th to 11th December in Prenzlau, Germany. Participants we offered a range of workshops sich as "What is Discrimination", "Discrimination in Historical Context", "How to Interview Historical Witnesses". The young people also had enough time for sightseeing, intercultural parties and even trip to a neighbour Polish Szczetsin.

The project takes place within "Europeans for Peace" program with a support of foundation "Remembrance. Responsibility. Future"

We are happy to announce that a new project "No ID children!" has started! This project is aimed to foster mutual understanding among young people in Poltava region. It is focused on cooperation and social involvement of local  and internally displaced youngsters for their smoother integration to the society. The project strives to promote acquaintance with best practices of migrants inclusion. During local activities, trainings and study visits young people, professionals who work with youth and local policy-makers will obtain new competencies for better work on empowerment of mutual understanding. This project is run with a partnership with Newality: Up2YOUth (Sweden) and supported by Black Sea Trust fro Regional Cooperation. The project consists of three main components: 

- series of trainings for youth "Me and the Other" that are being hold in Poltava. Participants of the trainings are teenagers and students from our city as well as those who have recently arrived.
- a study visit to Sweden for learning of best integration practices. During this visit representatives of local authorities, youth workers and youngsters themselves will meet Swedish organizations and activists that actively support newcomers. The study visit will take place in the beginning of April, 2016.
- series of trainings of journalism and publication of regional youth newspaper "Dovgapanchoha". During these trainings youth of Poltava will learn more about media-skills and will create articles about their lives and values of their generation.

We will inform about project development at our website and Facebook-page.

We are happy to announce that our organization is a partner in the international training course "Communication for NGOs". The TC will take place in August, 2015 in Gothenburg, Sweden. TC is organized by Newality: Up2YOUth and will gather 24 participants from Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Croatia, Sweden and Moldova. The project is financed by Swedish NA of Erasmus+ program (Myndigheten för ungdoms- och civilsamhällesfrågor). Training will draw attention to issue of communication, its potential and role in successful implementation of international projects and daily work of NGOs. Ukraine will be represented by youth and civic society activists from Poltava region. Follow more news about this project on our Facebook page!

The project that we have been waiting for so long is finally started. International youth exchange "Grounds of Understanding-3" gathered 31 young people and group leaders from Ukraine, Norway, Moldova and UK in a picturesque town Whitley Bay, which is near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Participants of the youth exchange have already discovered something new about English culture getting around the town and visiting local markets, learned about each others countries during international evening, some of traditional local food and, of course, got a chance to improve their English. Even more fun and learning is ahead!

Dear friends,
Holidays season approaching and we would like to take this chance to share our best wishes to you. Year 2014 was not easy for our country as well as for for many other places in the world but we believe that even one makes a difference. Soб we would like to thank you for your enthusiasm, dedication and hard work in your area. We believe that that even small efforts help to improve our world and we thank you for being with us in this improvement - officially and non-officially. 

We wish you to be strong, confident and successful in whatever you do next year! And, of course, we will be happy to develop new projects and other ways of coop ration with you!

Best wishes!