CRISIS PREVENTION AND PEACE BUILDING IN UKRAINE – TIME TO ACT!

This project was implemented during four years in 2017-20 and made contribution towards crisis prevention and peace building in Ukraine through self-sustainable long lasting modification of behaviour of its Key actors. It offered complex measures to the majority of parties that influence the status of the conflict or are influenced by it:

✔ Local community members of cities near the Contact line, Grey zone and non-controlled territories found a way to live alongside their former opponents – to coexist with them, to develop the level of cooperation and mutual understanding, so that all parties have better lives together than they used to have separately.

✔ Employees of mental recovery centres with improved professional skills made the process of psychological support, trauma prevention and recovery more effective and easier for their patients, helping them to overcome critical state, stop "living in war" after returning to civil life and faster re-integrate in their home communities.

✔ Internally displaced persons are lesser discriminated and stigmatised, more included in hosted communities' life as equals, prejudice and stereotyping about them along with accusation of being responsible for the start of the conflict is significantly avoided and the level of their discrimination and stigmatization is reduced.

✔ The voice of civil-society calling for peace is strengthen through network of non-governmental organizations and associations, which now have increased capacity in their activities on crisis prevention and peace building. They are considered real centres of public opinion expressions worth listening to.

✔ Media created favourable moods and environment for society to accept pro-peace initiatives, showing the importance of peacebuilding process, parsing and explaining the effectiveness of steps being taken, serving to overcome prejudices and negative stereotypes against it.

All implemented measures re-oriented Key actors' and target audience's mind-set from conflict and hatred to peace and tolerant attitude to opponents. Being properly executed, project events made important contribution to the great deal of peace building and conflict resolving in Ukraine. The different types of trainings were held in small towns near the contact line, where no similar activities are implemented despite its significant involvement to the conflict. Together they served to create a local synergy.

The project's implementation was supported with German Federal Foreign Office’s funds by IFA (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), Funding programme zivik.