Elena Palivoda, Author at Fellows eapcivilsociety.eu

PAKUNOCHOK

Fellowship Summary: The Fellowship objective was to create a Telegram ‘bot’ that will help mobilize citizens who already are willing to provide individual assistance to IDPs and match them with IDPs requesting assistance.

Hanna Nishnianidze’s Fellowship project, Pakunochok, was developed in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. With millions displaced and in urgent need of support, Hanna and her team created a simple yet powerful tool – a Telegram bot that connects those in need with those who are ready to help.

Launched in early 2023, Pakunochok is an automated system that collects and verifies individual requests for essential goods – food, baby products, and medicine – and adds them to a publicly accessible database. Anyone who wants to help can access the bot at any time, choose a verified request, and send a personalized aid package directly to the person in need.

During the project implementation, over 1,600 Ukrainians – single mothers, children, the elderly, and internally displaced people – received vital support and a message of solidarity. The project gave them not just supplies, but also something more powerful: a sense that they are not alone.

“Thank you so much for the help,” wrote Ludmila, one of the beneficiaries, “thanks to you I feel that I’m really not alone.” Another recipient, Katerina, shared her astonishment at the care behind each package: “There was a huge box of diapers for my baby… your project helped us a lot!”

Through Pakunochok, Hanna proved that even the smallest packages can carry the biggest impact.

Country	Ukraine
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HOMECOMING: How Ukrainian Refugees and IDPs Can Help their Communities to Change for the Better

Fellowship Summary: Researching opinions from IDPs and refugees about aspects of their temporary host communities that they would advocate could guide change in the home communities in Ukraine. The research will lead to the promotion of a report on new policies for local development in post-war communities.

Country	Ukraine
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‘uLocal’ IDPs Assistance Platform for Legal and Psychological Support

Fellowship Summary: Development of a digital platform that will facilitate IDPs and those willing to offer assistance to IDPs (in terms of psychological support, legal counselling, and other services) to post requests and opportunities, enabling a volunteer-based matching of services with demands of IDPs.

Anton Bocharov’s Fellowship project, uLocal, is a digital platform created to support Ukraine’s growing population of internally displaced persons (IDPs) by connecting them with verified legal and psychological experts offering free or discounted services.

Launched in 2023, uLocal acts as a smart matchmaking system. IDPs can search a growing database of professionals – currently 24 lawyers and 14 psychologists – filtering by specialty, service type, and location. Each expert profile includes ratings and reviews, allowing users to make informed choices. Once matched, users can securely message the professional and leave feedback afterward. The platform also features a built-in discount system to ensure services remain affordable.

In its first three months, uLocal attracted 965 visitors, nearly 150 registered users, and helped resolve 25 individual cases – mostly related to legal questions about social benefits, housing, and financial assistance. With each resolved request, uLocal not only helps IDPs navigate an unfamiliar system but also reaffirms their right to support and dignity in the face of displacement.

Country	Ukraine
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Support of Chernihiv CSOs and Activists to Generate Funds to Help the Region

Fellowship Summary: Supporting and building capacities of local CSOs for fundraising, through coaching and a digital guide, and facilitating strengthened cooperation between CSOs and local authorities for post-war Chernihiv.

Country	Ukraine
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Restoration of Environment Affected by Military Actions

Fellowship Summary: Raising awareness among civil society representatives, professional and future ecologists, environmental law specialists, public activists, representatives of city and state authorities working in the environmental field about the impact of military aggression on the environment, with a focus on the Holosiivskyi National Park.

Country	Ukraine
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Effective Fundraising – through an Individual Approach

Fellowship Summary: Developing and rolling-out a fund-raising capacity building programme for community organisations in the Vinnytsia region.

Country	Ukraine
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Evidence-based Youth Policy Development in Armenia

Fellowship Summary: Preparing and promoting a participatory policy analysis as evidence for reforming youth policies in Armenia, with support from a youth CSO social media campaign.

Grigor’s project was focused on exploring and enhancing youth participation in policy development and decision-making in Armenia. Its cornerstone is the publication of a bilingual Armenian-English Research Report “Youth Participation in Policy Development and Decision-Making”. (Download the Research Report in English here and in Armenian here). This comprehensive report sheds light on the political and civic involvement of young people at both the community and state levels. It identifies key issues and provides 22 recommendations for addressing gaps and needs, targeting national and local authorities, international organizations, and political parties.

The project engaged a wide range of stakeholders, including youth workers, youth policymakers, and national authorities responsible for youth, who were interviewed to gather valuable insights. Additionally, Grigor and his colleagues reached out to approximately 200 young people through an online survey and conducted five focus groups involving 50 participants in total, including young people and policymakers. This collaborative effort ensured that diverse perspectives were incorporated into the research. Furthermore, Grigor took a study trip to Brussels to learn about evidence-based youth policy development and implementation best practices.

The impact of the work is already evident, as its recommendations have been considered during the drafting of the Law on Youth and the Youth Policy Strategy and Action Plan of Armenia. Furthermore, the Armenian Progressive Youth NGO will utilize the methodology developed within the project to conduct the same study annually, monitoring changing patterns and emerging trends.

Country	Armenia
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Stronger Network of CSOs Responding to Needs of IDPs in Western Regions of Ukraine

Fellowship Summary: Establish a pool of activists in the Lviv region, through a ToT (Training-of-Trainers) and coaching, who will support local campaigns and advocacy of grassroots CSOs to address local level corruption.

“Civic activism is an opportunity to give back to society, something you often cannot fully do in your professional work”, says Vitalii Razik, 2021 EaP Civil Society Fellow from Lviv, Ukraine, who has been combining a successful legal practice with civic work for the past 23 years.

Civic activism for Vitalii started when he and his fellows at Ivan Franko National University established the Association of Law Students in 1995. Shortly after his graduation, Vitalii started working with Lviv-based Law and Democracy Foundation, first as a pro bono lawyer and since 2010 as director of the Foundation. Soon Vitalii realized that providing legal consultations to citizens was not enough, as most problems stemmed from more systematic faults of the Ukrainian legislation and practice. Thus, the Foundation expanded its activities, adding to its mandate human rights protection, access to justice, legal and court reforms, monitoring of the penitentiary system and its reform, preventing and counteracting corruption.

Had it not been for an event in 2010 that changed everything, the Foundation would have been working today the same way as hundreds of other smaller-scale CSOs in Ukraine. But in 2010 the Foundation’s lawyers helped Ivan Samardak from Lviv to win his case against Ukraine at the European Court of Human Rights. It was a successful story with plenty of lessons learnt, and Vitalii wanted to share their experience with lawyers in other regions, who dealt with similar cases and problems.

“Working with civil society organisations was the most efficient way of sharing this important information”, recollects Vitalii. For the Foundation, it was the first action focused on experience sharing. “We established good communication with the organisations, and realised that acting as a network benefits every organisation, as we can mutually share our best practices, and then apply and further distribute them in our regions, thus acting as catalysts.”

In 2012 the first twelve human rights CSOs – partners of the Foundation – signed a memorandum of cooperation and established a network to coordinate human rights activities and disseminate experience to strengthen Ukrainian civil society and CSOs. Today, the Network of Human Rights NGOs has about 20 active member CSOs from 8 Ukrainian oblasts, “Cooperation between CSOs creates a more effective civil society, opportunities to share experience, helps to solve problems and engage communities to address systematic problems.”

In 2018 the Foundation co-founded another network, Toloka Coalition of Regional Initiatives. Three years later, in 2021 Vitalii received the EaP Civil Society Fellowship award, with a project idea to assist and inspire local CSOs, first of all members of the two Foundation’s networks, in preventing corruption at the grassroots level. He was about to start his fellowship when Russia commenced the full-scale war in Ukraine. Corruption did not disappear, but priorities changed.

Among other numerous challenges, Ukraine had to deal with the refugee crises unprecedented in recent history. People were coming to western Ukraine in the thousands, and needed all kinds of assistance: humanitarian, informational, legal, psychological. “Before the government managed to stabilise the system to make it functional, there was no one except civil society to provide support to internally displaced Ukrainians,” says Vitalii. Many of those CSOs had little or no experience of working with IDPs, and Vitalii saw an immediate need to help these organisations adapt their activities and practices to the realities and needs of war.

Vitalii’s project included several components: training civil society activists in providing legal and psychological support to IDPs, media outreach and advocating for IDPs’ issues at local level, consulting CSOs on legal issues, e.g., related with martial law, and on psychological aspects of CSOs’ work in crisis, running awareness and information campaigns, etc. “Before providing much needed help to others, the organisations needed to be trained in how to do that properly,” says Vitalii. It was inspiring to see that activists who had come to the trainings feeling lost found the focus and started supporting IDPs successfully and tackling other urgent problems.

His approach proved its effectiveness: by the end of the Fellowship project in October 2022, 17 participating CSOs reported they had provided support to over 8,000 IDPs, and the number of beneficiaries was increasing. Vitalii explains, “If I had decided to help IDPs directly, I would have been able to help only very few. This approach allowed me to help thousands.”

The network of CSOs supporting IDPs in Western Ukraine established within the Fellowship project continues working today, with members and individual activists keeping in touch and helping each other when needed.

“In my opinion, civic and charity organisations are the basis of civil society, and we must keep working on enabling them to mature as after our victory [in the war] civil society will become the driver of Ukraine’s reconstruction and development processes on its road to further European integration.”

Country	Ukraine
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Women Bike Camp in Vanadzor

Fellowship Summary: Design and deliver a campaign and a ‘bike camp’ which uses the promotion of healthy lifestyles as a tool for the empowerment of women.

Implemented by Emma Petrosyan, the Women Bike Camp in Vanadzor was an initiative aimed at empowering women and girls through cycling and fostering confidence in sports participation. This unique project marked the first event of its kind in the region, combining practical cycling lessons with skill-building workshops, all while providing participants with the opportunity to connect with nature and embrace a healthy lifestyle.

The bike camp welcomed 1o women from three different cities in Armenia, who participated in three cycling classes. These sessions not only helped participants learn to ride bicycles but also offered a hands-on workshop about bike mechanics, covering basic repairs and maintenance skills. For many participants, this was a first-time experience, boosting their self-confidence and expanding their perspectives on outdoor sports and recreational activities.

The impact of the bike camp extended far beyond the immediate participants. A significant partnership was established with Women Fund Armenia, which expressed strong interest in supporting the camp as an annual event. Additionally, the Municipality of Vanadzor recognized the potential of cycling as a recreational and transport activity.

With continued support from Women Fund Armenia and other donors, the bike camp plans to host future cycling classes for women and youth in Vanadzor, fostering inclusivity and empowerment through sports.

Country	Armenia
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Mentoring for Teachers in Rural Communities

Fellowship Summary: Develop and pilot a methodology and mechanism for mentoring school teachers in Boratyn (Volyn region of Ukraine) and then support association to adopt and promote, with adaptations for the war context.

Country	Ukraine
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