This year, within this advocacy campaign the World Bank collaborated with the Charity Foundation “Priyateli Ditey / Friends of the Children” which helps educate youth in orphanages and support them in obtaining higher education. Currently, the Foundation has several projects one of which is “Students to Children” aiming to engage university students who graduated from the boarding schools in education of the younger generation of pupils in such institutions. Students share their experience of entering universities, finding jobs and introducing into the social life after the boarding schools, getting the life skills necessary to adapt to societal patterns.
“Being European Means Being Young and Healthy”The most essential area appeared to be healthy lifestyle which was the topic of over 50 peer to peer trainings with findings and data from the World Bank brochure titled “Being European Means Being Young and Healthy”. This brochure presents the most compelling facts from the study “An Avoidable Tragedy: Combating Ukraine’s Health Crisis – Lessons from Europe” related to risky behaviors and the way these affect Ukrainians` health status and life expectancies. Such trainings were organized in 10 orphanages in Kharkiv, Kyiv, Cherkassy, Zaporizhzhya, Lugansk, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and Sumy Oblasts of Ukraine.
“It is very important to educate and support young people from the orphanages who after the graduation have no state care anymore. Especially the great impact has peer to peer method because pupils feel more confident with the students of small age difference. – said Dmytro Samarskyy, Coordinator of ‘Students to Children” Project, Social Worker - The World Bank brochures with colorful pictures and impressive statistics attracted attention of the youth people and made them take the information delivered at the trainings more seriously and consciously”.
Scout GatheringAnother initiative was 20th Youth, Volunteers and Scout Gathering called “Kozaks Routs” organized by the Kyiv City Center of Social Service and National organization of scouts which took place in April, 2010 in Korsun-Shevchenkivsky region of Cherkassy oblast. The motto of the annual social gathering is “Youth for Healthy Lifestyle” with this year`s sub topic: Time to Act Together. There were 1200 young participants from all over Ukraine and foreign guests from Bulgaria living in tent camps, participating in all day long outdoor activities, social events, workshops and trainings on healthy lifestyle.
Of the events of “Kozaks Routs”, was Festival of the Social Advertisement where the brochure “Being European Means Being Young and Healthy” was presented by the moderator as one of the examples of how the international organization such as the World Bank can attract the attention of young people to the consequences of unhealthy lifestyles and inspire them to live a healthy life and spread this message among other people in Ukraine.
The other presentation of the study was organized in Kharkiv Oblast Specialized School “Talent” for talented young people aged 14-16 from poor families of small cities and rural areas of Kharkiv region. The school was created in year 2009 by the initiative and a financial support of the Mayor of Kharkiv Oblast . Currently there are 199 pupils studying at the main specializations of nature-mathematics and polytechnics. Food and accommodation at the premises of school are provided free of charge to all pupils. There are renovated classes with computers and internet, multimedia equipment and smart desks, library, gym, sport and classic dance sections. The teachers are the best and honored specialists, PhD lectors of Kharkiv Oblast.
“We don`t have a problem with unhealthy food or doing sports at school. With the spring time some of our pupils started jogging in the morning and in the evening in the school garden– which is becoming very popular among us.“ – said 14 years old Bilych Olga from Izum city.”Figures from the World Bank presentation were not so shocking comparing to what we see at the streets of our cities. It is common to see young people with the cigarettes and bottle of beer. Now we are aware about the sequences of such bad habits. To be aware means to be armed”.
In 2009-2010, the pupils of “Talent” proved their unique skills by winning the first prizes at All Ukrainian School Olympiads and research papers competitions among school pupils. These talented, highly motivated and creative young people are the future elite of Ukraine and the most wanted candidates for many universities of the region. They are the champions among others and the good examples to be followed.
“We feel comfortable at the school as we are all similar, sharing the life style and desire to study”. - said 14 years old Katerina Gorlenko from Chuguev city.”Coming back to our small towns and other societies which significantly differ from what we have here don`t frighten me. To smoke as everybody does - is not a sign of originality and maturity anymore. We should introduce new fashion for young people - fashion of living healthy. This is where I`m happy to contribute”.
One more presentation of the study was organized at Kharkiv National University of Economics ( KhNEU) within the joint World Bank and KhNEU Center of Innovative Knowledge initiative. The Bank experts were invited to present the study at the international young scientists and researcher’s conference organized by KhNEU on April, 16 – 17, 2010 in Kharkiv. The topic of the conference was “Challenges facing the science and education of the youth: theory, practice and modern solutions” with more than 330 young participants from all over Ukraine and abroad, guest speakers from the World Bank, the State Department of Statistics in Kharkiv, private companies Logic Nucleo and Service2Media. The main conclusion of all presentations made during the conference by the guest speakers and participants was: if you want to be a successful researcher, scientist or competitive employee – first of all you should take care of your health!
