Solemn reception in honor of the United Nations Day in Ukraine took place in Kyiv on October 24. It gathered diplomats, pubic and cultural figures, journalists, and NGO representatives from different regions of Ukraine. Among the participants of the event there were the representatives of the children’s NGO “Club of Young Peacemakers” from Kamianets-Podilsky. Seventh grader Olha Osadchuk, member of the NGO, was asked to read the address of the UN Secretary General on the occasion of the United Nations Day. At the event she was accompanied by the president of the Club of Young Peacemakers Volodymyr Baranovsky.
“I am a former military officers, was a part of the peacekeeping mission in Leba-non. When in 2005 I returned to Ukraine I decided to create a children’s club that would promote the work of the UN. In 2008 the club became a children’s NGO. We established contact with the UN Office in Ukraine. We received great support: the UN representative Olivier Adam came to Kamianets-Podilsky to congratulate us and admitted us to the young peacemakers,” Baranovsky told The Day. “Since then we have been cooperating with the UN, organize various activities for almost all international holidays related to the organization: Day of Peacemaker, Youth Day, Day of Disabled People, Day of the Elderly, Day of Peace, and others. We have developed our own program for celebrating those holidays: we organize decades of good deeds, visit seniors and veterans and do other things.”
According to Baranovsky, the program of the organization has been already approved by the Ministry of Education and the club has its branches in six schools of Kamianets-Podilsky and Ternopil oblast. Currently, the organization has 250 members. One of the problems that the organization is facing is the financial issues. So far, says the president of the club, everything operates “on children’s initiatives.”
“During my mission as a field engineer I cleared mines. When you see a sign ‘Danger, Mines!’ and then children go and get blown up by these mines, you start thinking that something needs to be done to stop this. These were the places where a very valuable for the Arabs salad grew, a kilogram of that salad cost 50 dollars. For the money children took the risk. I had the idea of informing the children in some way. We went to Lebanese schools, spoke about the danger, but the kids still went to mine fields,” said Baranovsky.
Back in Ukraine the peacekeeper continued informational work. “We have a lot of mines and similar junk left after the World War II. Our children find these things, play with them and, thus, get exposed to danger. After establishing the organization we began to work with field engineers from Kamianets-Podilsky College, invited them to come and talk to children and then told them more about the dangers. Then children started to spread the word. That’s how our peacekeeping mission started.”
Baranovsky told us that at first people in schools did not quite understand the need for such club. “Many told us that there were many different programs for kids to master and here we were suggesting some peacekeeping stuff. But after our presentations children started joining the club. They go back to school wearing our uniform and, of course, teachers get curious about where they got it,” summed up Baranovsky.
