Last week, our organization joined the event “New Veteran Policy Tools for Displaced Communities,” organized by the NGO “Space of Opportunities” with the support of EU4Recovery, UNDP, and funding from the European Union.
Key speakers included:
- Deputy Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Ulyana Tokareva,
- Deputy Minister for Veterans Affairs of Ukraine Ruslan Prykhodko,
- representative of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in Donetsk and Luhansk regions Dmytro Mykhalyov,
- Heads of Donetsk and Luhansk Regional Administrations Vadym Filashkin and Artem Lisohor,
- Deputy Head of Donetsk Region Oleksandr Shevchenko.
Representatives of the public sector, local authorities, and international organizations also joined the discussion.
The main topics of the event were:
- ensuring access to social services for veterans and their family members;
- features of new veteran programs in the context of interaction between host and relocated communities;
- creating effective mechanisms for integrating veterans into local communities.
Participants also took part in a practical workshop, during which they discussed:
- optimization of cooperation between specialists at different levels,
- effective use of shared community resources.
The work resulted in specific developments on issues such as:
- the welfare and health of veterans,
- politics of memory,
- interaction between public organizations and government bodies.
All proposals have been recorded and will soon be submitted to central authorities for appropriate amendments to legislative acts.
We would like to separately note the active participation of representatives of the Zaporizhia region - more than 13 participants from public organizations, charitable foundations, government bodies and local governments.
For our organization, this event became an important platform for discussing the problem we work on every day:
insufficient readiness of society to accept veterans, as well as a low level of knowledge and skills in communicating with veterans and their families.
We are grateful to Deputy Minister for Veterans Affairs Ruslan Prykhodko for drawing attention to this issue.
Yes, there are many problems and challenges. But the main thing is that society at all levels is ready to work on solving them. And we are sure: together we will succeed!
Glory to Ukraine!
