MoldovAnn

I’m heading out today to spend the next week traveling with a group of international volunteers as part of our UNV Volunteerism Promotion Campaign. The volunteers arrived this past Monday from Poland, Serbia, France,Denmark, Turkey, Germany and Japan! They have spent this week at a cute little rural tourism place about 2 hours from Kyiv, participating in trainings and preparing their own presentation for youth groups in the five Chornobyl-affected communities they will visit. My colleague Anna spent most of this week with them, and I visited on Wednesday to make a presentation about the Chornobyl accident and its aftermaths. Another colleague from CRDP told them about their initiatives, especially about the Youth Centers where this group will be working in the next week. We were also extremely honored that Mr. Daisuke Minamino, Second secretary from the Embassy of Japan in Ukraine, joined us to talk about Japanese support for recovery and development initiatives in Chornobyl-affected communities.

I will join them tonight for their last night at the training site, and then tomorrow morning we head to the village of Liubech (Chernihivska oblast), where we will work with the local kids on the renovation of their youth center. In the evening, the international and Ukrainian volunteers will have a “cultural program”, sharing traditions and in general having a fun time together. We’ll spend the night in Liubech (on the floor in the youth center - man, I’m getting too old for that kind of stuff!), and then Sunday head to Kyiv for a free day in the capital.

The rest of the week looks like this:
Monday - excursion to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone.
Tuesday - volunteer and cultural program in Kruglik (Kyivska oblast)
Wednesday - program in Lystvyn (Zhytomyrska oblast, Ovrutsky raiyon)
Thursday - program in Kyrdany (Zhytomyrska oblast, Ovrutsky raiyon)
Friday - program in Korosten (Zhytomyrska oblast)
Saturday - fun celebrations for the Korosten “City Day” festival
Sunday - return to Kyiv, wrap-up and evaluation
Monday - press conference; participant departure

I’ll write again after Sept. 10 and let you know how it all goes. I think it will be great - let’s just hope my back can handle a week of sleeping on the floor.