Oleksii graduated in ‘Business Economics’ in 2010 and since has forged a career in marketing and IT.   This has included founding a number of businesses, including a mobile game development studio and a bookstore-cafe in the center of Kyiv.

Oleksii has always been engaged in social activities, using his entrepreneural and marketing expertise to mobilize citizens to address social concerns.  In Kyiv he has been an active member of the “March for Kyiv” community and co-founder of the “Pecherski Cats”, a volunteer community he continues to work for.

With the invasion of Ukraine, Oleksii recognised that the community not only needed further mobilization and leadership, but that there also needed to be a participatory process to identify citizens new priorities.  The fellowship has enabled this to happen.

“During a full-scale invasion, thanks to the organized local community, we were able to maintain the humanitarian situation in the area. I became convinced that local communities are critically needed in both peacetime and wartime. Accordingly I want to make efforts so that a local community appears in every neighborhood of Kyiv and that they have access to methodologies to help them unite for the sake of positive changes.” – Oleksii ERINCHAK