Peace Corps Training in Lviv

Thomas and Pavel Alexiyvich have returned to the family.

Last week, the head of the ARD TATC, Pavlo Yarmiy and volunteer Thomas Choi went to Lviv to take part in the 5-day project development and management training from Peace Corps. This trip is a 6-month mark for volunteers who arrived in Ukraine in mid-August for training in the Zhytomyr region. ⠀⠀

In Lviv, they were greeted by Peace Corps Ukraine employees, including regional managers as well as the director. More than 40 other volunteers were present together with Ukrainian partners from three different sectors: community development, youth development and education. They came from the Lviv, Volyn, Ternopil, Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson Oblasts. Pavlo and Thomas were able to develop old and new relationships with different organizations and teachers within five days, creating a valuable network throughout the country.

Seminars covered topics such as:

• goals and objectives
• action plans
• monitoring and evaluation
• budget and financing
• language training for participants

Volunteers and Ukrainian partners were able to share their experience over the past 3 months of joint work and provide feedback for better future cooperation.

Representatives of ARD TATC developed an interesting project "Cossack Camp" with a goal and objectives for ​​the project "Ostanya Sich Ukraine" in order to increase the historical awareness and cultural pride of the Ukrainian youth of the Kherson region. This project took first place in the competition, which was between by 40 Ukrainian-American pairs.

Each group was given apple-shaped post-its to select the most attractive projects as well as the best structured goals and objectives. The project of our organization received the largest number of votes - 23 apple stickers.

"Cossack Camp" would be a week-long camp on the territory of the island near the city of Nova Kakhovka in order to raise the level of knowledge about the Ukrainian and Cossack cultures of the region. After that, camp participants will distribute history and knowledge to their communities and share their knowledge through the implementation of their own social projects by the end of the year.

Now our team, with the support of new friends, is ready to introduce new and interesting projects into reality.