Living in New Communities: Displaced Persons Learn to Manage Conflicts

It is fashionable these days to write success stories about internally displaced persons – short, in-depth, optimistic; such texts do not always give a comprehensive idea of the price that the displaced persons pay to get the said success. Especially when it comes to seemingly simple, "everyday" issues, which are much more difficult to resolve practically than theoretically. For example, about the new life of the IDPs in their new communities. To begin with, the displaced persons did not ask for a new life in new communities amidst strangers. They wanted to live at home, but the war took this home. So, starting from scratch, the IDPs do not always easily adapt to new conditions. Accordingly, conflicts arise that someone should help to overcome.

In his interview for Chornomorka, the head of the "Regional Union of Youth" (RUNY) NGO Mykhailo Gryshyn talked about the amount of work done by those who took up the solution to the above-mentioned problem. More precisely, a number of problems faced by representatives of hosting communities – in the broadest sense of the word. It should be noted that the representatives of "RUNY" are displaced persons from the occupied Donetsk themselves, who are well acquainted with the problems of IDPs, and who decided to help their fellow citizens to learn to surmount conflicts.

Mykhailo, please tell us more about the project. What are its specific features?

Since 2017, the "Regional Union of Youth" has been implementing the "Crisis prevention and Peace building in Ukraine – Time to Act!" project under the sponsorship of the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (IFA) using the German Federal Foreign Office resources.

A whole range of activities is planned within the project:

- Two training courses on reconciliation, conflict management and inclusion in local communities. Participants gain knowledge on the analysis of the essence of the conflict and its actors: their behaviour, motivation and psychology, as well as on conflict management and mediation, and receive basic training skills in order to be able to disseminate the knowledge acquired during the trainings in their home communities. The participants are residents of the eastern regions of Ukraine with active civic position who are focused on resolving/preventing internal conflicts in their communities, representatives of civic organizations, and IDPs. After completing the training within two courses, participants organize and implement one-day mini-seminars (20 in total) in their communities, transferring the acquired knowledge to the residents of their hometowns.

- Trainings for psychologists. In total, 5 training-courses are planned, consisting of two three-day parts. Their goal is to provide participants with knowledge and practical skills for psychological assistance to those affected by the armed conflict, their return to peaceful civilian life and further integration into communities. The training participants (from all over Ukraine) are practicing psychologists, employees of psychological centres, public and humanitarian organizations working in the field of mental recovery of people affected by the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine.

- The seminar on coalition development and advocacy campaigns. The participants are representatives of civic organizations, associations and foundations, including international ones, operating in the east of Ukraine. Within the seminar, the topics of developing coalitions, advocacy campaigns and their main stages, holding public actions and using communication channels, tools for interaction between the authorities and society, methods of establishing multistakeholder partnerships, etc. will be discussed in detail. It is assumed that after completing the training, participants will organize and implement one-day public events (5 in total) in their communities (advocacy campaigns, round tables, discussions, etc.) dedicated to the topic of building of a dialogue and peace.

- Open Space. Final event summarizing the project. For the final part, it is usually planned to develop further joint activities to overcome the crisis and build peace.

The peculiarity of the project lies, firstly, in its scale, secondly, in real donor support (our partners are interested in the effectiveness of the events), and, thirdly, in practical benefits: the project will result not only in the knowledge acquired, but also in the opportunity to apply this knowledge on practice.

Why conflict management? The topic is complex, intricate, but "RUNY" has been working in this direction since 2017.

As displaced persons ourselves, we have always felt the need to invest in peacebuilding, because we have experienced first-hand what conflict and its consequences are in the truest sense of the word. It should also be borne in mind that, despite the armed conflict, there are contradictions between citizens, who, let's say, sometimes display intolerance towards opponents: we can talk about political platform, civil position, and so on. Hatred based on different political convictions leads to deepening, aggravating of conflicts, and outside parties can simply use the situation for their personal interests.

For the opportunity to implement the project, we need to thank our donors and partners, who consider the topic of overcoming conflicts to be relevant for Ukrainian society. Thus, the Consul General of German Republic, Mr. Wolfgang Mössinger, was one of the inspirers of the project idea. So, the project has been successfully implemented for several years now. We are grateful to the German Consulate General for the initiative, since we did not know that there were such programs before, within which it was possible to obtain funding for activities in conflict management. All the planned activities within the project were discussed with Mr. Consul General; he introduced his vision of ways of resolving the conflict and gave recommendations. Thus, the project was the common understanding of efforts.

Of course, we are pleased that donors are not only ready to support the implementation of our ideas, but they are also initiators of projects useful for Ukraine. Germany is one of the few countries helping the Ukrainian society to acquire knowledge, skills and tools for dealing with such a time-consuming topic as conflict management.

How popular is the project? How is it developing?

At first, our activity was not large-scale, in 2017 only a few events were planned for the entire project – just one training for each of the selected topics. As of the first year, one could already say that the project was successful, this was confirmed both by the reviews of the participants, and by the assessment of the German Consulate General and the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen. Therefore, in the second year, it was decided to expand the activities and add new events – for example, we implemented more trainings for psychologists and increased the number of their participants, since we received 163 applications for training for 20 places in the first year of the project, and we realized that the topic is in great demand. Later, it turned out that such projects are scarcely being implemented in Ukraine.

Trainings for psychologists are still in demand in the third year of the project: for example, last year we held three trainings for 30 participants each, but even so we could not reach all those interested. Therefore, for 2019, we have planned training-courses of two modules in order to maximize the educational program, and we received 220 applications for participation in the first training for 30 places.

Beyond that, we launched several new side events for civil society organizations working in the field of conflict management and peacebuilding in eastern Ukraine.

We also expanded the training program on conflict management in communities, the first course of which started in Kramatorsk (the second course is scheduled for July 15-19 and July 29-August 1). Initially, it consisted of two parts for 20 participants, in the second year it consisted of three parts for 30 participants, and this year the number of participants has increased, as well as the number of events.

What can you say about efficiency? Are the acquired skills being put into practice?

Certainly. For example, based on the results of the training on conflict management in communities, which is taking place in Kramatorsk, several groups should be formed that will implement similar mini-seminars in home communities. Participants will draw up their own programs, coordinate them with the project team, whereafter they will be able to implement similar (one-day) trainings for small audiences, where they will summarize all that they have learned in nine days at our training.

According to previous experience, the participants who attended similar trainings last year have already implemented 25 of their own events (after the first year, 10 mini-seminars took place, and 15 after the second). Reports, photos, feedback from participants were received after all events.

"Crisis prevention and Peace building in Ukraine - Time to Act!" project is rated for 2019. What results do you expect?

Representatives of different target audiences participate in the events; therefore, each audience has its own tasks. For example, during two training courses on conflict management, participants should learn conflict management, that is, how to manage existing conflicts and prevent potential ones in their communities, and, accordingly, convey this knowledge further. Psychologists will acquire new knowledge on rehabilitation of people affected by the armed conflict: these can be internally displaced persons, volunteers, and the military. Representatives of nongovernmental organizations will have to master the knowledge of coalition building and advocacy campaigns.

If we talk about the displaced people, during our trainings they acquire knowledge in accordance with the theme of the event, and also learn to build relationships in new communities where they moved in connection with the events in eastern Ukraine.

For your information, the representatives of non-governmental organizations can, with our support, implement their initiatives, that is, hold a public event – a workshop, a round table, a forum theatre, or a small advocacy campaign, or a press conference with a number of speakers. Participants determine the format of events independently, based on the effectiveness of a particular event. Under this project, funding has been provided for such local initiatives.

We are talking about community conflict management. Do you communicate with officials within the project?

When we drafted trainings for communities, we did not mean the communities run by officials. We meant communities in a broader sense – after all, a community can be any group of people, from a group of neighbours living on the same floor in a house to districts and entire regions. And all this, in principle, falls under the definition of a "community". Moreover, they can be coordinated or not, they can be self-coordinated, and so on.

I do not remember that officials came to the mini-seminars organized by the participants. Although, for example, round tables held for non-governmental organizations were attended by officials of different levels. These are quite formal events, which are implemented in a format more understandable for officials than, let us say, trainings. Thus, we can say that officials are aware of our initiatives, they know about our project, and some ideas are discussed with them at regular intervals.

We receive applications for participation in our trainings from representatives of government institutions. For example, from representatives of youth centres, from employees of local authorities. We treat such participants with a certain degree of scepticism, since there is no reason to believe that after our events such participants will really implement some of their own initiatives. However, if it is clear that the application for participation is filled out by a person who is really enthusiastic, who is ready to participate actively, is ready to plan and implement his/her own initiative, then, naturally, we always accept such applications.

Interviewed by Maryna Kuraptseva, independent journalist