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Fellowship Programme

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Vartovy (CityGuard) SaaS platform

Fellowship Summary: The Fellowship project aims to create “CityGuard”, a digital platform in partnership with Ostroh territorial community. It enhances emergency preparedness, communication, and safety in Ostroh by offering digital evacuation plans for population points, training, and real-time communication during emergencies.

Updates coming soon!

Country Ukraine
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CSOs4ECC: CSOs for Effective Cross Sectoral Cooperation

Fellowship Summary: The objective of the ‘CSOs4ECC’ Fellowship is to enhance cross-sectoral cooperation among CSOs and other local stakeholders(LSG, Private sector) in Tavush and Lori regions for more effective and impactful collaboration promoting locally-led/need-based operations, local ownership and sustainability.

Updates coming soon!

Country Armenia
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Volunteer4Ukraine: Engaging Worldwide Support for Local Impact

Fellowship Summary: The Fellowship project aims to support civil society in Ukraine by assisting civil society organisations (CSOs) to access voluntary international expertise. This will be achieved online through facilitated digital matchmaking of Ukrainian CSOs and international volunteers.

For Diana Daiub, co-founder and director of Support Ukraine Now, the Russian invasion of Ukraine wasn’t just a national crisis – it was deeply personal. As a long-time advocate for civil society, she knew that Ukraine’s civil society organisations (CSOs) would play a vital role in supporting those most affected by the war. But there was a challenge: how could these organisations, many already stretched thin, access the expertise they needed to tackle the growing demands?

Diana saw an opportunity in the global outpouring of support for Ukraine. Many people wanted to help, but logistics were difficult—how could international volunteers lend their skills to local organisations that were struggling with everything from project management to language training? This is when Diana’s idea was born: a platform that could connect international volunteers with Ukrainian civil society organisations, giving these organisations the support they needed while allowing people worldwide to contribute meaningfully to Ukraine’s future.

I realised that the world was ready to help, but the challenge was creating a system that made it easy for volunteers and organisations to connect. That’s how the idea for Volunteer4Ukraine was born.

Diana applied for the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Fellowship because she knew she needed support to turn her idea into reality.  Through her fellowship, Diana developed Volunteer4Ukraine, an online platform that uses no-code tools to match CSOs with international volunteers. The platform allows CSOs to register and share their needs—whether it’s for help with fundraising, teaching English, or financial management. On the other side, volunteers from around the globe sign up and are matched with opportunities based on their skills.

Before the fellowship, we had a form collecting contacts of potential volunteers, but we didn’t have the resources to match them with CSOs. The fellowship gave me the tools and connections to develop and launch the project, and we’re already seeing the impact.

Over 2,600 visitors checked out the Volueert4Ukraine platform, with 24 CSOs and 39 volunteers officially registered within the first 3 months of the platform work. These volunteers come from countries like the US, UK, Germany, Switzerland, and South Africa, bringing a variety of skills from language teaching to strategic planning. The system identified 255 matches between CSOs and volunteers and made the first automated introductions, with five confirmed collaborations already underway.

One of the early successes includes volunteers from the UK and the US working with Smart Osvita, a Kyiv-based organisation, to teach English to children affected by the war. At the same time, Skhidnyi Menti, another CSO, has started working with volunteers from Germany and Switzerland to manage projects and finances. These collaborations show how international volunteers can fill critical gaps and help CSOs do more for their communities.

Diana’s platform isn’t just about matching volunteers with tasks—it’s about creating cross-cultural exchanges that benefit both sides. Ukrainian CSOs gain much-needed expertise, while international volunteers gain a deeper understanding of the situation in Ukraine and the work of its civil society.

The beauty of this project is that it’s not just about technical skills—it’s about building connections. These collaborations are not just helping CSOs meet their needs; they’re bringing people together across borders.

Looking ahead, Diana is optimistic about the future of Volunteer4Ukraine. The platform is fully automated and can run with minimal supervision. As the war continues and the needs of Ukrainian CSOs grow, this digital tool will remain an important resource for hundreds of organisations. Diana plans to seek additional funding to keep the platform running long-term, ensuring that more CSOs can benefit from international expertise.

Volunteer4Ukraine has shown that global cooperation can make a real difference. As long as Ukrainian CSOs need support, we’ll keep building these bridges.

Country Ukraine
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YouthVoices for Democracy

Fellowship Summary: The aim of the Fellowship is to make communication campaigns from social media influencers data-driven and tailored to the political needs, values and interests of Gen Z in Georgia. The Fellow will implement activities to build a community around this objective.

Updates coming soon!

Country Georgia
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Synergizing Voices: Empowering Municipalities through Innovative Communication Strategies

Fellowship Summary: The Fellowship project aims to promote well-informed decision-making processes in Armenia by developing a pilot comprehensive communication strategy methodology for the Ijevan community, which thereafter can be replicated.

Updates coming soon!

Country Armenia
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FANDY. New Fundraising Instruments for Local Charities and CSOs

Fellowship Summary: The Fellowship project aims at providing charities with a new digital instrument for fundraising and donation analytics, including website/fundraising pages launch tool, and check-out charity extension for woo-commerce powered websites.

FANDY platform is a digital tool designed to help charities raise funds through donations and subscriptions, manage donors, and provide donation analytics. The platform includes a web builder for donation forms and fundraising pages, an admin dashboard, and management tools for donors (users donating money).

The platform’s user-friendly interface and range of features, such as the web builder and analytics dashboard, have contributed to its success. As more charities begin to use FANDY, its impact is set to grow, making it an essential tool for the fundraising community.  Overall, FANDY has the potential to revolutionize the way charities raise funds and manage donations.

As a result of the Fellowship, charities in EaP countries got access to a modern-day fundraising service, which can help them raise more funds and make a greater impact in their respective fields. Additionally, this can help introduce new technologies and practices to the charity sector, which can help CSOs become more effective and efficient in their operations.

Country Belarus
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Strengthening Oversight Role of Municipal Councils

Municipal councils that better serve interests of our communities are those that better fight ineffective governance and corruption locally.  Therefore, the Fellowship project promotes stronger oversight role of municipal councils over the work of Mayors and their offices.  The project will create incentive for local political parties to initiate oversight by supporting quality media coverage of identified local problems.

Country Georgia
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The Meaningful Participation in Community Decision-making Processes of People Living in Group Homes in Armenia

Fellowship Summary: Research and recommendations on the development of practices for people with mental health problems living in group homes to be included in the community decision-making process.

In parallel with academic studies, with a MA in Social Work and a nearly completed Doctorate in Sociology, Gohar Khachatryan has charted her civic activism through a range of CSOs and Thinktanks in her native Armenia since 2016.  She grew up in a provincial town and through voluntary work with a local CSO began to understand how vulnerable groups often have their rights ignored or abused.  While pursuing her academic goals Gohar had the opportunity to study the dynamics of anti-discrimination.  From 2018 to 2019 Gohar was a Research Fellow with the Public Policy Institute and under an EU-funded project ‘Pursuing Positive Change Through Empowering CSOs’ she analysed methods and toolkits for protecting against discrimination.  Later, in 2022, Gohar spent time in Austria, supported by an Erasmus+ action, exploring mechanisms and practices for the prevention of gender-based violence and learning from challenges in the management of mental health services.

“When the call’ for applicants for the Civil Society Fellows came out in the second half of 2022, I saw a great opportunity for making a positive contribution to promote community-based approaches to mental healthcare in Armenia.”

Accordingly, Gohar set about to evaluate the policies and practices used in the establishment and operations of the first four innovative, post-Soviet ‘group homes’ in Armenia.  These are residential homes for citizens who require support on specific mental health issues.  The homes, in the regions of Ararat, Kotayk, Lori, and the capital Yerevan, were initially established though programmes of international organisations and now jointly run with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and cooperation with the local authorities.  The long-term aim of the ‘homes’ is to support mental health sufferers to live independent lives in the community.  As such, Gohar used her fellowship to look at the progress in a particular area – the extent to which the residents of the ‘group homes’ participate in local decision-making processes – and to facilitate a fully participatory research process involving the residents, the staff and management of the homes.

As a result of her fellowship, Gohar has helped to create a degree of momentum towards the goal of having ‘independent living’ as the guiding policy principle on mental healthcare provision.  Having pioneered research on this subject, she has created a space for further research and investigation, and through debate on her research paper has ensured that the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs will endorse the paper’s recommendations.  Furthermore, the Ministry for Territorial Infrastructure has agreed to disseminate the report to its local government communities in Armenia with the intention of inspiring them to take action to be more inclusive in their decision-making.

Download the full Research Report in Armenian:

With regard to the rights-holders in these ‘group homes’ Gohar has also noted positive changes.  Residents are now aware of their rights and the management of the homes have a better understanding of how they can improve the protection of those rights.  For example, there had been a previous practice for the management of the ‘group homes’ to confiscate and safeguard the passports of residents.  But, through the consultative activities of Gohar’s research, residents and staff were able to learn about the importance and usefulness for residents to keep their own passports and consequently three of the ‘group homes’ have changed their policy on this issue.

Gohar also reported that there were other bright moments generated by the interaction with the residents.  During the fellowship project Gohar wanted to create some visual products (posters and flyers) to raise awareness and promote the findings of the research.

“To do this we had a designer to come up with some visual drafts and then we showed these to the residents to ask for their opinions and ideas on how to finalize the products. The posters and flyers were duly made and at the fellowships final event the residents of the ‘group homes’ saw these outputs and were so pleased to see their ideas and suggestions incorporated. This was really empowerment in action.”

Gohar will be continuing her mission to support the protection of the rights of women and men with mental health issues and more broadly engage in the defence of rights of other vulnerable groups.  “Being part of civil society is paramount to this process as it means that I can investigate and advocate without the restraints that may otherwise come if I was a State employee”.  As part of this mission, Gohar, with other like-minded colleagues, set up a platform called ‘Change’.  Gohar hopes that this organisation will be an effective addition to the rights protection architecture in Armenia and is proud that its first advocacy action was to promote the findings from her fellowship project.

Country Armenia
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Active Citizen – The Key Pillar of Local Democracy

Fellowship Summary: Research on citizens’ participation mechanisms in Shida Kartli region, and their promotion among the local residents, with the focus on active young leaders.

Updates coming soon!

Country Georgia
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Development of Chatbots Construction Platform for Local Communities

Fellowship Summary: Create and launch a digital solution that facilitates citizens in Ukraine to report and/or complain to local authorities in a formally documented manner.

Updates coming soon!

Country Ukraine
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