Olga Horkavchuk: I was most impressed by the desire of people to learn, when it comes to daily survival
The cycle of interview-reflections with national coordinators of the EENCE Citizenship Education Caravan is continued by Olga Horkavchuk (Ukraine).
- What do you consider to be the biggest success of the Caravan in your country?
The biggest success of the Caravan in Ukraine is the physical possibility of holding it.
In the context of a full-scale war, there was a great risk of not being able to organize training and bring people together.
But fortunately, there were brave people among foreign experts who expressed a desire to come to Ukraine despite all the circumstances.
- What impressed you the most during the Caravan?
I was most impressed by the desire of people to learn, when it comes to daily survival.
I was also impressed by the ability of Ukrainians to plan to attend events when you are not sure whether a missile will hit your house at night.
This once again confirms that Ukrainians are an extremely erudite and intelligent nation! We have a great future waiting for us!
- What challenges related to civic education were most often raised during the Caravan events?
Not quite the classic ones. The war has made adjustments. Now human rights issues, first aid, and refugee rights are relevant.
- If you were to organize the Caravan again, what would you change?
We would like donors to change their attitude to the organization of the Caravan. This is not a one-week project, but a two-month project. The team of the Ukrainian Caravan worked with the program, documents, negotiations, corporate identity development, and search for experts for almost two months before the actual project began.
- I would also like to say…
… that we dedicated the Ukrainian project of the Caravan to all the Heroes of Ukraine who died in the war since 2014. Thanks to them, we can live relatively safely!
The Caravan is organized by a consortium of EENCE experts and organizations in the framework of the project “EENCE Citizenship Education Caravan”, funded by the Federal Agency for Citizenship Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung / bpb) with funds allocated by the German Federal Foreign Office.