Systemic improvements
for families who come from Ukraine

7 September 2023

ADDITIONS
PHOTOS
PARTNERS

Yesterday, together with our partners Digitálna koalícia and TrustWomen, we organised a very successful (admittedly) and much needed event aimed at improving the situation of Ukrainian migrants in Slovakia. The event focused mainly on the field of education in connection with the launch of the Ukrainian Pupil project, as well as employment and entrepreneurship.

The main goal was the exchange of experience, coordination of activities, as well as direct discussion with representatives of government authorities and ministries. We were able to achieve this goal thanks to the participation of Mr. Miroslav Denciho from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic, who is also a freelance adviser to the Prime Minister on the reconstruction of Ukraine, and Mr. Matej Sapák from the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic, who is responsible for the education of Ukrainian immigrants in the Slovak Republic. In addition to them, on behalf of the Digital Coalition, the executive project manager, Mr. Pavol Šedo, took part in the event.

Eva Valovskaya from TrustWomen and Alona Kurotova from the AK Foundation gave opening remarks and welcomed the participants. The first block of the meeting was accompanied by presentations of individual non-profit organizations, their vision and plans for the future, as well as a description of the problems they face in their work.

The speakers in this part were:
- Miriam Ngombe - the manager of the dissemination programme at o.z. Mareena
- Miroslava Mittelmannová - programme Director, League for Human Rights
- Lýdia Hric Machová - founder of the "Badíci pre Ukrajincov" initiative
- Martin Takács - expert Advisor at the Support Centre of the Bratislava Archdiocesan Charity Support Centre
- Ekaterina Pleshanová - Chairman of the Management Board of the AK Foundation
- Eva Valovská - the founder of the organisation TrustWomen
- Ľudmila Jakubíková a Oksana Krasniková from the Mental Health League
- Ľudmila Vrbická is the founder and director of the Ukrainian-Slovak Initiative (USI) and the Ukrainian Institute

The next block was dedicated to education, where Mr Matej Sapak from the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic gave a detailed presentation on the current status and problems of education of IDPs from Ukraine, and outlined ways to address the problem in the future. This presentation became one of the topics of the next panel discussion, and overall it was one of the most thorough presentations on this topic since the beginning of the Russian war in Ukraine.

In the second part of this block, Anzhelika Kirichuk presented in detail the “Ukrainian Student” project, which is currently being implemented with the support of the Digital Coalition and aims to promote the education of Ukrainian children by providing subsidies for the purchase of digital equipment.
This will contribute to faster learning of Ukrainian children in Slovakia, and consequently, their rapid adaptation to the new environment.

One of the most interesting parts of the event was the panel discussion, where Lyudmila Verbitskaya spoke from representatives of the Ukrainian community of Slovakia, and the “state” was represented by Mr. Miroslav Denci , Mr. Matej Sapák a Mr. Pavol Šedo.

At the end of the event, the President of the Ukrainian-Slovak Business Agency Dmitry Konyshev presented business opportunities for Ukrainians living in Slovakia and a vision for improving the entire process.

However, the entire event consisted not only of presentations by participants, but also of informal communication between participants and the exchange of experiences, opinions and contacts. As a co-organizer, we would like to once again thank our partners Digitálna koalícia and TrustWomen, as well as all participants of the event.