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In this special episode on Ukraine, we discuss how young people are involved in supporting other people in Ukraine and Moldova.
Welcome to UNDER 30, the podcast series by the EU-Council of Europe youth partnership that brings research results, explores trends in young people's lives and themes relevant for youth policy and practice.
The EU-CoE youth partnership is a co-operation programme between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth, created in 1998, connecting youth research, policy and practice.
Vasyl: I would like to express gratitude, on behalf of all Ukrainians
for everyone who supports us, because we see this support and we feel it.
And, remember that you can do a lot and you are doing a lot.
And every minute of volunteering is a great contribution to the better future.
Dariusz: It's been more than a month since Ukraine was attacked by the troops of the Russian Federation.
Many people fled Ukraine and found shelter in the neighboring countries.
Many also moved to other regions of Ukraine that are safer.
How is the youth sector in Ukraine involved in supporting both civilians and the armed forces?
How young people involved in organizing and delivering support to the refugees from Ukraine in Moldova.
My name is Dariusz Grzemny and together with Tanya Basarab we will be hosting this special
episode of the UNDER 30 podcast brought to you by the EU-Council of Europe youth partnership.
So let's start.
Tanya: Welcome to this special episode on the young people in
Ukraine and from Ukraine during these very extraordinary times.
We think that the partnership should provide a platform to young people, youth organizations, youth
sector, to explain what is going on, to discuss what young people are doing both in Ukraine and outside.
And to start this series, we have invited today Vasyl Shatruk, Mariana Turcan, and together
with Darek, we will try to have a conversation about the efforts that youth sector is
undertaking in Ukraine, how they are adapting to this very dire war impacting on the 25% of
Ukrainian population and also on half of Ukraine's children, which we now know are displaced.
And half of Ukraine's children, meaning half of Ukraine's population almost.
Dariusz: Vasyl you are in Ukraine now.
I think what would be the most interesting for our listeners is to see what is the situation.
In your perspective, what's the situation with the youth sector in Ukraine?
We have a lot of information that a lot of youth centers have been turned into shelters.
Some of them were actually destroyed.
So, what's happening with the youth sector in Ukraine at the moment?
Vasyl: Okay, you can see nowadays an unprecedented level of volunteering in Ukraine and this
standards has started since 2014, since the Revolution of Dignity and now it turned like a
big movement of volunteering among young people, and they usually apply to the youth center.
Also there are NGOs, for example, a big amount of volunteers get together at the scout organizations and they help
with humanitarian aid, they help to collect this medicines and some equipment for civilians, for armed forces.
And this actually very important as this is a great support and it's
like an aspect of civil society, which is very positive, I think.
And, this was developed throughout these recent years, I believe and due to some projects of the European Union.
For example, a lot of people participated in the Erasmus plus programme, some youth exchanges and they developed
their outlook based on the values of the European Union and, therefore they are very supportive nowadays.
And I think also another positive aspect is that a lot of Ukrainian young people, are now abroad and
they are active in the projects, for example, in Poland, in Czech Republic, Germany and other countries.
And they also help us as they used to be volunteers of our youth center in the
past, and they organized some clubs, some activities at our youth center, and now
they collect some humanitarian aid and organize some rallies in the countries they live.
And this is very helpful as we have good contacts with them.
Actually, recently we have started several hundreds of youth centers that was like a network of the youth centers.
And, some of them were like youth clubs or some youth initiatives.
Some of them had some official status, like municipal institutions.
And now they became like the centers of active initiative people
which organize this support for people which suffer war in Ukraine.
For example, they organized collecting some humanitarian aid or some of them provide a space
as shelters for some period and also the volunteers of these centers help the refugees.
So, they turned into the places, which are very important in this
difficult situation and it's sad situation in the Eastern part.
Some of them have been destroyed, because of missile attacks, for example in a Kyiv region, Kharkiv,
Luhansk region, in Chernihiv the youth centre has been destroyed, and that's sad situation, but it's
positive that we have contacts with some of the centers in other regions, as we communicated a lot,
participated in different programs organized by the the Ministry of Youth in Sports and other organizations.
And we have contact and we can speak to them and ask what they need and they also call us if they need, for
example, there are some refugees that go from that region and we can agree, and meet them here and organize.
So it's very positive aspect nowadays in terms of communication and support each other.
Making camouflage nets is one of the initiatives, which we started at our youth center.
And also we know a lot of other organizations that are doing this.
And, since the first day of the war, we got a lot of requests for camouflage nets from the armed forces.
And we organized the manufacture first at our youth center, the regional youth center.
But then, we saw that we didn't have enough space for that.
So, we moved to another location.
This is like three floor location and they organize this process.
So, they made over 200 camouflage nets and, we gave that to the armed forces.
Also, at our youth center we collect medicines, mostly medicines,
food and some clothes, and this medicines people bring to us.
We asked some pharmacy students to join as a volunteers to separate and to organize everything.
And, then we receive from people or there are some organizations from abroad who
sent us, and then we sent to civilians or armed forces in the regions under the war.
Tanya: I was going to ask Vasyl...
Lviv is probably one of the most demanded places at the moment, because it's such a crossroad between
what Ukraine needs and also a place through which Ukrainians move east and west, mostly west these days.
And at the same time, the place, which still is able to receive all help.
So I was wondering from your perspective, and from the knowledge about young
people who are in Ukraine and maybe further east, what do you see as their needs?
The young people, what do they need most at the moment.
Vasyl: Mostly the biggest need of young people in the Eastern part of Ukraine is first
of all to get evacuated from these regions, because it's very dangerous to stay there.
And, also they need some place to stay here, some workplace and also some psychological assistance.
Also, which is a positive aspect, that they are very eager to
join volunteering here, because they understand the situation.
They can help us with the logistics.
For example, there are some volunteers from Irpin, from Bucha, and they help
a lot because they know how to deliver humanitarian aid to that regions.
And they have contacts whom to give this humanitarian aid and also they stayed some period under the
attacks so they know what is most needed, but mostly this, like, medicine and food is the most important.
And, also some of young people need to find some safe space.
I think the majority of them and, some of them can stay here, but some of
them need to go abroad to have some psychological relax and some assistance.
So, we also help them to go to other countries, mostly to Poland because Lviv is close to the Polish border.
So that's what are the needs actually.
They mostly need support, understanding and safety.
I would like to express gratitude, on behalf of all Ukrainians for
everyone who supports us, because we see this support and we feel it.
And, remember that you can do a lot and you are doing a lot.
And every minute of volunteering is a great contribution to the better future.
And we are very grateful that you stand with Ukraine and, I hope that we will come through
this together and we will win and we'll be happy to share this victory with everyone.
Dariusz: Thank you Vasyl.
We know what is happening with the young people, with children who are displaced either within Ukraine
or outside as well, because many of them became refugees and there was a big effort from different
communities, also from young people in the neighboring countries of Ukraine, to actually support, not
only young people, all people that are crossing the border and entering the new country of destination.
So what does it look like in Moldova?
What's the role of young people in all the support that's provided to the refugees coming from Ukraine?
Mariana: Hi dariusz, hi Vasyl, hi Tanya.
Thank you for having this podcast to reflect, but also to inform
the listeners on what is happening in this part of the world.
Allow me before I answer your question, Dariusz, to just give you a few figures
that will allow you to understand who are the refugees at the moment in Moldova.
But also who are the people working with these refugees?
And what's the role of the young people.
As of today, we have about 360,000 people that have crossed the Moldova since the war began.
And at this moment we have a little bit of 101,000 refugees who were stationed
in Moldova, out of which half of them, almost 50,000 are children under 18.
That's a big figure when we are thinking about who are the refugees that are being hosted in Moldova.
And I'm using this word hosted because Moldova has become quite a model in terms of dealing with or managing the refugee
crisis in a worldwide, not only in Europe, simply because almost 90% of the refugees are hosted in Moldovan houses.
This means this children and women, and refugees are placed within or with Moldovans or are
hosted in some apartments that they rent and a less number are present in the placement centers.
Obviously, we have a downbreak and in terms of how many people cross the borders right now,
but regardless if we're talking about this children and young people and women, because like
66% of the refugees that are in Moldova are actually women and young girls or young women.
So the reason I'm giving you this number is for you to understand what kind of services are there for these refugees.
And obviously it triggers a lot of experts, or consultants or teachers working with young people.
But also, I must say how wonderfully, I would say, the civil society and
youth organizations have engaged themselves into this management of crisis.
We're talking about the creation of a youth friendly, child and mother friendly zones at the placement centers that
are managed by both those who give counseling to the women, but also to the youth organizations, youth councils,
and other organizations that work with the young people in terms of animating their time or giving them support of
overcoming the difficulties of, both mental and physical difficulties of being already on the Moldovan territory.
We're talking about where these organizations support in terms of other
services for the mothers and children, whether it's access to medical services.
Of course we have the hospitals that are responsible, but we address the young people in order to take those
mothers and children to take them to the hospitals or take them to the embassy to work on their documents.
We're talking of so many diverse services.
I would call them services, but it's support and help the young people engage themselves.
There's a questionnaire going around to ask the young people how are they feeling about this whole refugee status?
Are they willing to provide support?
Do they find it difficult?
None of them complain.
And this is what is so amazing again.
We talk about this as a crisis, but when it comes to volunteers, they see it as a volunteering,
as a support given to the refugees, both children and women and peer young people.
Tanya: Maybe I can just add that from our take on it is that there has been a convergence of different services
around the whole support system for refugees and young people are often these connection points at all stages,
but would you have examples Meg about what youth organizations do in child-friendly and youth friendly places.
Mariana: So indeed Tanya, as you're saying we have volunteers from all the ages from different type
of organizations, from community type organizations, from organizations that have put aside their
usual work in order to support at the borders, at the placement centers, in providing those services,
be it transportation or accommodation, or the goods that are being distributed to the refugees.
But we have a huge number of young people.
And these are the young people that are able, and let me put it this way,
to donate their time, to invest their time in supporting the refugees.
The type of activities at the placement centers are, just starting with, just little small games,
played with children because we're talking about mothers that have gone by food on a long journey.
We're talking about mothers and children, both at the same time that
have went through disastrous images in their lives the sounds of war.
They are traveling with them and we have mothers who were saying that their kids can
not sleep at night because they're still hearing those horrifying sounds from home.
So, in order for the mothers to be able to access counseling and have a bit of, you know,
rest from the long trips, we provide the kids, the youth organizations are there, the youth
councils, as I said, And then large organizations that work with young people like Terre des
Hommes, a National Youth Council of Moldova, organizations that work with non-farm education.
They provide little games, it can be drawings, it can be anything that would
provide the children the time to have activities while mothers have a bit of rest.
But when it comes to elder generations, if they are enrolled in school, then they attend classes.
And at the same time, we know of organizations that want to provide the youth, Ukrainian youth or other
nationalities that are here as refugees to provide them with different trainings on certain topics.
And this is amazing again, because we want these children to feel that they're not
missing on their classes that they can use this time, not as only being serviced, but
also to continue their learning, to see it as productive period of time, I would say.
Dariusz: Thank you Mariana for this.
It has been observed or seen in I think all neighboring countries, this
kind of common action that was at the first day, actually when the war began.
And then people started to cross the border that there's this joint action of young people, all people of
all generations started doing something, you know, sometimes not knowing what they have to do at first.
And then they actually became more and more coordinated.
So I think that's very uplifting as you said, because this is really extraordinary.
You were talking about the big role of volunteers, the big role of people of different ages and
especially young people as well in supporting mothers, young people who are coming from Ukraine.
Are there any systemic changes that are kind of responding to the needs of refugees that are coming to Moldova?
I mean, what is the response when it comes to schooling?
When it comes to two other aspects that are important for people, for young people.
Mariana: Dariusz, I think this crisis has pivoted or has pointed out how solidarity works in a crisis moment.
And, having this said, I would like to point out how amazing was to notice that, you
know, organizations that represent different faiths, be it a Christian or Jewish or
Muslim have put themselves together to support the refugees, regardless of the religion.
We've also noticed how many, ethnic organizations, representatives of these ethnicities in Moldova have helped
different, third country nationals, not only Ukrainians that have crossed the borders and are stationed in Moldova.
This is remarkable to show the solidarity in a war crisis did not choose a religion or a status of
social status, in that fact it has showed that solidarity can be performed through concrete actions.
And the moment I mentioned that it's mostly young people simply because
we're talking about people who had the time to donate again their time.
In terms of how we know of the needs of refugees, be it whether it's in education or goods that are
being are there to be distributed, or whether they need transportation or they need medical assistance.
Cause we know of so many cases because there is a call center,
hotline that is being managed by the government at this moment.
There is a platform that is uniting many other organizations that work in a special room here in the
government, but it's a civic platform of many other organizations that have more than 3000 volunteers.
And I'm not counting the ones that are at the borders at this moment.
And many other platforms that are here.
The reason I'm calling for this platform, because this platform of youth or volunteers
are united with the call center and with the crisis unit here in the government to make
sure that all the requests for help are united and put together in an organized way.
The reason for that is not to double, but also not to miss out requests coming from diverse groups or regions.
and so on.
Obviously all this response mechanisms are there on different platforms.
There is a dopomoha.md , which is an online platform run by Moldova
for Peace, which is the volunteering or civic engagement platform.
But also there is the dopomoga.gov.md, which is a governmental platform that unites a lot of other services and other
info points for the refugees, but also for the Moldovans and for the other organizations that want to provide support.
it's amazing to see that it's not, again, it's not about age, but it's about how we can put together
the requests for help, the requests to help because it's both in a channelled and organized way.
Obviously when I was saying we're doing the best at the moment,
because every week we're still improving on the platforms.
And, I know it has been a month since the start of the war.
But to me, it seems like 10 years simply because every day in itself
is already a month in terms of how fast we work on the mechanisms.
And we have changed the mechanisms along the way in order to shift them or put them at
work and take into consideration the requests and the reality We didn't have a manual.
We simply did not have a manual on how you deal about refugees or how will you deal about a war?
So the mechanisms and the tools have been developed and remodeled along the way as it happens.
Tanya: Yeah, maybe it's worth emphasizing that although Moldova has a frozen conflict with some, foreign
troops stationed also in Transnistria, the actual experience of welcoming and taking care in shifts, but also
for long-term of such a big number of refugees is something that it's an experience that is happening now.
And that is why it's very interesting this whole convergence
of initiatives through the civic platform of Moldova for Peace.
I am of course observing it from the outside, but it's very interesting.
Mariana: Indeed Tanya, following on what you said, most of the foreigners who are not well-informed
about this region are asking how come the Moldovans are taking in their house foreigners, strangers.
Moldovans do not think of Ukrainians as foreigners or strangers.
We have a one language, politically, but not politically Russian language
is a communication language in between the Ukrainians and Moldovans.
Ukraine and Moldova has never been at war.
We have a shared history in the Soviet Union, however, to make the best of it people
saw this on a solidarity, nonpolitical solidarity, a momentum of supporting each other.
We have amazing, and I have to say this I'm proud of the government that it has put in place,
and it has adjusted the legislation that children can enroll in schools and we already have
successful cases of children who are enrolled in Russian and Ukrainian speaking schools and lyceums.
We're weekly in touch with and communicating with the Ministry of Education from Ukraine and classes, online
classes are still provided by the teachers and schools from Ukraine to the Ukrainian children here in Moldova.
And this is amazing because we want to make sure if in a specific village or region where preponderantly
people speak Romanian, the Ukrainian refugees can access online classes provided by Ukraine.
And this is again, a very amazing momentum.
And another momentum to be shared is that we have been involving volunteers Ukrainians who are here and the platform
Moldova for Peace we have Ukrainian women that are volunteering and are helping us in communicating with the refugees.
And one important part, which I think is enabling the more cohesion, social cohesion in
Moldova is the fact that refugees can actually employ themselves, that they can find a job.
And we already have wonderful, amazing stories of how Ukrainians and other nationalities
that are here as refugees, already work for different companies and organizations.
And this shows that, you know, social cohesion can happen during this crisis times, and that
the refugees are not marginalized, but they are able not only to be hosted by Moldovans,
but become part of the Moldovan society in a solidarity with the Moldovan counterparts here.
Dariusz: One more question.
I was the other day at the train station, where here in Poland, there is a lot of
volunteers who are actually helping people who are arriving in my city by train.
And, I was talking with the young volunteers and I asked them, how do you keep yourself going?
How do you keep your spirits up?
And they basically told me there are two things.
One thing is that they don't have time to think about it.
They just act.
And the other thing is that they say we are actually mobilizing our colleagues, our friends.
And so every day when they have a moment that is free they are recording stories, their stories what they experience
and what it gives them, and they put it over on the social media and it was really interesting to see how they do it.
There were people in the age of 15, 16, 17 and they were really very involved in what they were doing.
So is was it in Moldova?
How people get going, you know, how do you keep your energy up?
Mariana: Dariusz, that's an amazing point that you have pointed out.
Indeed the young people do not need a lot of other, mechanisms to speak.
There's social media, any type of social media, be it with videos on
Instagram, on the TikTok or be it long messages with pictures on Facebook.
It's amazing to see how young people bring their friends and colleagues into these actions.
It's already a month and I must tell you, we want to avoid that, you know, the solidarity,
what generosity or hospitality is turned out into burnout, because we're talking
about people who are involved, not only physically to support, but emotionally, right?
And we don't not want the, to exhaust people in that sense.
And as you're saying, we've been offering counseling and debriefing, I don't know, different methods for the volunteer.
They keep telling us, we don't have time for that.
Now it's time to act like they are afraid to rest a bit in order to be there to help.
But I must tell you that one of the positive outcome of this whole
situation is how young people put at work their competences, their skills.
One thing is to write it down a CV, one thing is to actually learn how to do social work, but
it's completely, it's a complete different story when you actually put at work these competences.
And we've seen students from different faculties that allow them to do volunteering as a practice,
like social work, as I mentioned earlier, we've seen a young people coming, just like you said, whether
it's high school or, you know, it's not for the CV, but it's like a base of training their skills.
And it's amazing to see that young people see this as a support and less than a development process.
But I will point this out as a person working with young people, that this
has been quite a learning experience for the young people themselves, indeed.
Tanya: So, from what I have heard from both of you, it seems that at least young people and
young volunteers are very present and they are very much acting as this kind of intermediaries.
The centers have turned into, and also youth clubs and youth centers in Moldova, they've
turned into logistical centers, for receiving maybe just for short-term, overnight, two
nights, for helping people with their paperwork, for helping them with further referrals.
There is a lot of what I heard around general organization behind.
And to that extent, I would say that it's not for nothing that this investment in building
organizations and building civil society, youth civil society has been there for a long time.
We know in Ukraine, there was this big program about to support 260 youth centers.
These centers are critical humanitarian aid centers and coordination centers.
And also from what I heard from both of you, there is a need for at least a European youth sector to think about these
longer term perspectives for young people and for people in general from Ukraine and for the mental health support.
So we will try to do some Small part and small contribution from our side.
We hope we can highlight more of these kind of initiatives, both
always from inside Ukraine and from the neighboring countries.
And we will try to see what type of guidelines and maybe better mapping of the realities better research
can be done that would not be a burden for the volunteers, but that would be helpful for the sectors such.
Thank you both for finding time.
We know you're very busy with quite urgent things, but we think it's very important that
people hear from you directly, what is going on and then maybe they will connect to you.
Mariana: The refugee crisis and everything that is happening in Ukraine, a European
crisis, because these are refugees that are going to enter the other countries.
We need the attention of the European and international institutions in addressing the
needs of the refugees, but also we're talking about the countries like, like Moldova
and I am a citizen of this country and I work for the government of this country.
We're a small country with limited resources.
And when it comes to work with refugees, there needs to be wholesome
answer to the needs, not only of the refugees who are stationed here.
So we're talking about education.
We're talking about the economy, we're talking about social cohesion.
We're talking about so many other areas, you know, to mainstream, where we see again,
the key word is cohesion, this social cohesion of the refugees on the territory of
Moldova or be it on the territory of Romania, Poland or Hungary, any other country.
We're talking about these people who can be part of the societies where
they are and not put aside with the label of refugee and and separated.
So this needs to be addressed with concrete mechanisms with concrete, and
I will allow myself to say money that makes these mechanisms supported.
And obviously with concrete expertize that is adjusted to the reality in this part of the world.
As I said, the refugee model in Moldova does not answer to the usual ones, but having people just like
in this podcast, we're discussing how we take into consideration the realities of this phenomenon here.
Thank you.
Dariusz: Thank you all of you for being here.
The war is, yeah, it's over a month now.
It's more than a month.
So the needs are still there and the needs may be growing and they
also may be changing, because of the changing situation as well.
So, we have to be very attentive as well.
But I think what we discussed as well before, that what's very important in all this at first,
and I think it still will be valid all the time is the solidarity that is a driving force
actually for everything that is happening, either in Ukraine because there's a lot of Ukrainian
young people supporting the people who are misplaced in the country and they need support there.
And outside Ukraine mainly in neighboring countries and other European
countries that are welcoming people who were forced to leave their country.
So thanks a lot for this.