“Make society healthy” is a joint project launched by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Klitschko Brothers Foundation and geared towards helping young and ambitious Ukrainians, who are anxious to perfect Ukrainian society.
“I am sure that big changes begin with each of us, and tomorrow the ideas and innovations, which will be created in the framework of our project, will initiate great change in Ukraine,” emphasized Vitali Klitschko.
The first stage of the contest recently came to an end – writing an essay on the topic “Making Society Healthy.” It was all about searching for “recipes” for the improvement of communities and finding young leaders. Out of 200 essays that had been sent to the contest, the jury selected the best 50.
“Many young people would count on the state in these matters, but at the same time, they emphasize that it is worth starting with oneself,” related a jury member, TV hostess Ivanna Kobernyk. “What I remembered best was a suggestion to take two sheets of chipboard and make a ping-pong table in your yard. The idea is that the kids are better off playing ping-pong than drinking beer.
“I even tried to ignore the style and spelling mistakes – if the essays were vibrant with a sincere desire to be helpful and to be heard.”
Now, 50 young Ukrainians aged 16–25 are participating in “Creative Workshops.” They have to develop, either individually or in groups, a model of health improvement for their community (school, village, or town), and the top 10 projects will receive grants of 3,000 hryvnias each. The authors of the most successful model will visit Germany and share their experience.
“The problem of Ukrainian society lies in the lack of initiative,” believes Illia Yeremenko, a student from Rivne. “My project is about arranging a series of business games and seminars for high school students. This is exactly the age when teens are mature enough to decide what they need and realize how exactly they have to achieve it.”
“I have been studying the influence of taxation on the social sphere,” added Oksana Kostianaia from Kharkiv. “Recently, the excise duty rates have been raised. My objective is to find out both positive and negative implications it has had on tobacco smoking.
“This contest is very important in that it can help convey a message to our top officials that it takes serious mathematical calculation to amend legislation. You cannot do it arbitrarily. Problems need to be discussed – only in this case will we be able to get rid of them.”
Oleksandr Ivanov from Kyiv is one of the few who came to take part with a finished project: “This year, we are going to hold the Trypillian Ring Festival for the youth and young families for the third time. We hold it in the open air, and alcohol and cigarettes are not allowed. The young people in Ukraine and children from broken homes in particular lack healthy communication and other people’s attention.
“The surrounding community implies not only freedom, but also responsibility. So, when the state cannot and the big business will not deal with questions of improvement of communities, it is up to the NGOs and the youth in particular to solve this problem.”
In her essay Kseniia Kosteniuk, a girl from Odesa, has created a model of a healthy community with the help of street sports, which have become very popular over the recent years.
“Skaters, bikers, and rollers – all these people go out onto the streets to stay fit. Broken curbs or damaged monuments are not mere manifestations of vandalism. They are rather symptoms of the lack of sports amenities for the young people where they could do street sports,” said Kosteniuk. “In my opinion, this might become an alternative for bad habits: street sports are relatively inexpensive compared to other, more conventional sports, and thus are quite affordable for anyone.”
The participants of the training session can enjoy an eventful program: communication, sightseeing trips, and a reception at the German embassy. Soon, the young leaders will go back home and start implementing real projects.
