2nd session of the project “Youth among IDPs: help yourself and others resolving urgent problems” on 3rd - 5th of August 2015 in Vinnytsa.
This project includes 5 three-day training for youth from among the IDPs and is realized by YA with the support of Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Ukraine. According to the results of monitoring of Kharkiv region there is ca. 182.000 internally displaced persons (IDP) and big part of them are young people who study at different institutions of higher education.
Main topics of the project: how to deal with psychological problems of young people among the IDPs (especially the adaptation of young people at new places, overcoming main stereotypes and solving conflicts, how to resist manipulation); how to find a job in new conditions, how to open own business (methods and success stories): how to defend your rights and influence/cooperate with the (local) government – mechanism and examples.
The session included different activities like trainings, workshops and open space. Project participants identified two main categories of urgent issues in the context of IDP’s life - economic and psychological. Psychological problems:
- The problem of identifying themselves in the new environment and problem of belonging;
- Desire to go back home or/and to find new home;
- Emotional burnout (including through volunteering);
- The problem of adaptation of children (friends , schools, clubs) and other categories of IDPs;
- The desire to escape from all;
- Competition in the labor market, bureaucracy and corruption (also as a cause of depression);
- The problem of stereotypes, perceptions of IDPs by local people;
- Inability to influence the situation;
- Restrictions on voting rights (discrimination).
Economical problems:
- Search for permanent or temporary housing;
- The absence of crediting on favorable terms;
- Search for job (retraining)
- Lack of financial assistance.
Our participants developed proposals to the government aimed at overcoming and solving pressing problems of young people among IDPs. This list contains basic steps which are necessary for the implementation at the national and / or local level.
