Ukrainian youth activist Tetyana Kravchuk. INTERVIEW | 20-year-old activist from Ukraine: “About 70 percent of Ukrainian youth are volunteers” UN
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a youth volunteer movement has mobilized, UN News Service learned from 20-year-old Tatyana Kravchuk, an activist who is also a member of the Youth Advisory Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the country. Evgeniya Kleshcheva spoke with Tatyana on the sidelines of the Future Summit at the UN headquarters in New York.
EK: Tell us about yourself and what you brought to this summit?
TK: My name is Tatiana, I am from Ukraine. I am 20 years old and I am currently a member of the UNICEF Youth Advisory Council. And I am here to advocate for peace in Ukraine, for sustainable development and the transition of our region to a better future.
EK: What is happening with the Ukrainian youth movement? What are young people doing, what do they hope for in the current situation?
TK: Young people suffer because of the war in all areas of their lives. There is not a single young person who has not been affected by it. Youth movements have become very active since the war started, which is really amazing, because compared to 2021, there seems to be 10 times more charity and volunteer work in the country now than there was before.
It’s really impressive. About 60 or even 70 percent of young people are getting involved and involved in volunteer work. So youth movements are in full swing now, I would say.
Of course, the priority topic is the war and everything connected with it. For example, helping children in need, all kinds of support for their needs. Also, many movements are focused on development and education, mental health, support for opportunities and European integration. These issues are also very relevant.
So, I would say, everything is very diverse and depends on each representative of the youth, on age and, perhaps, on the region. The youth movement as a whole is very active.
EK: What do you hope to see as a result of this week at the UN? What should world leaders hear from the youth of Ukraine?
TK: My hope, and I think the hope of all young people, is that this week will ultimately lead to peace and to the end of the war. Because, as I said before, there is no area of life that has not been affected. If we talk about medical needs, just a couple of months ago, our largest hospital, Okhmatdet, was destroyed in the center of Kyiv, which is just nonsense in the 21st century. The hospital was treating children with cancer, with injuries they received due to shelling, and injuries that happened due to bombs and things like that. All the needs are growing because of the war.
The loss of education is enormous. Some children have not seen their classmates for four years because of the COVID-19 lockdown and then because of the war. It is just crazy that a country in Europe cannot provide children with the opportunity to get an education. Online learning cannot replace face-to-face education, and a normal educational process is impossible when an air raid alarm can occur at any time.
So, first of all, what we really hope to do at the summit is to support peace. What we hope to achieve at the summit, as a second goal, is to help Ukraine see a better future ahead of it. To move towards a sustainable transition, to think about development and survival. And so it is important to lead this summit first of all towards peace, but it is also important to highlight all the development goals that we have. Because even though we are in a state of war, we understand that we want a better future.
Children want a better future. We can’t give them back their childhood, but we can promise them that we will help them build a better future and work towards that. We will promise them that we will give them the opportunities they missed, even if it’s not possible now. You can at least promise them that it will be in the future, that they will have a normal adolescence or a normal adult life. We can reaffirm our commitment to working towards that.
EK: Tell us about your work with UNICEF.
TK: I’m actually really proud of my UNICEF country office. They’re amazing and they do a lot of important work. It’s humanitarian, emergency assistance in the affected areas, and programs that support education, mental health needs, all kinds of different aspects of child and adolescent development. The Youth Advisory Council advises UNICEF on what children and young people in Ukraine need right now. We also learn how we can help, how we can spread the word, how we can make a difference, how we can support this work. We previously supported UNICEF in developing the country programming document for 2025-2030, which was a success, and we’re proud of that.
All the members of the Youth Advisory Council participate in various events all over Ukraine, as well as in various UNICEF events. For example, we travel all over the world and participate in forums as delegates to talk about what’s really important. We try to support initiatives. For example, we are currently organizing the first ever Local Conference of Youth (LCOY) that will take place in Ukraine. Previously, this event was held only in other countries. And we believe that this is the first step to truly strengthening the Ukrainian movement for sustainable development and the fight against climate change – to make it centralized and give young people a voice.
This is what we, as the Youth Advisory Council, want to achieve. To get a platform for young voices to voice their needs, their demands, and what young people want and need. After all, it is not only about needs that need to be met, but also about dreams that need to be supported. And we really believe and want them to achieve their dreams.
That’s what’s really important to us.
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