Last week at UA Brokers Without Borders we took part at the National Summit of Volunteer and Humanitarian Initiatives in Truskavets organized by ISAR "Ednannia".
The event was confidential, all participants were asked not to spread any information about the location of the event up until it is over, to avoid possible targeting by Russian army.
The Summit in itself was a celebration of Ukrainian volunteer phenomenon in the way it brought together local leaders from around Ukraine to share the stories, experiences and lessons learned from the first 4 months of war.
All sorts of organizations attended the event:
humanitarian hubs
centers for internally displaced individuals
centers of psychological support and rehabilitation
government authorities
donors from national and international organizations
veteran organizations
Create partnerships
While it was very empowering to see how the society got mobilized to provide a response to catastrophic consequences of Russian terrorist war in Ukraine, at the same time it was very clear that so long that the war goes on the scale of humanitarian catastrophe will only increase and therefore we must scale and become smarter and more equipped in what we do.
The forum has also highlighted the need for the organizations to create partnerships, share know-how, and work on capacity building to ensure the capability to operate in the long term period of time.
Our founder Svitlana Muzychenko take part in the panel about engaging the foreign community in humanitarian response in Ukraine and acting as agent of change.