FreeСХІД.ua#21 Europe Day City Mayors’ transformation, environmental worries, and When Donbas was brought to its knees for the first time
In the photo: Mayor of Lyman city, Peter Tsimidan - Spanish style
Today we have both good and not such good news.
Good news: rental agreement is no longer mandatory for IDPs living on rental property when applying for hosing and utility subsidy.
However, if you rent and receive the subsidy, special committee might come to your home to check whether you are actually in need of being subsidized.
We explored environmental situation in Donbas, and, unfortunately, it does not look good.
Lviv Media Forum discussed problems of Donbas media and information presentation - the population does not perceive it too well. We would like to share some recommendations made by Forum speakers as they might be useful to our readers.
#FreeZONE
New rules for subsidizing housing and utility expenses
Starting this May the Government tightened utility subsidy regulations. As a result, about 20% of subsidy recipients might be refused state financial relief.
New regulation will first and foremost influence officially unemployed, renters and internally displaced (IDPs). The change has already caused a commotion at social welfare centers, as many Ukrainians came to check whether they will be losing their benefits.
What changes regarding IDPs?
1. From now on, IDP’s who live on rental property don’t need rental agreement to apply for housing and utility subsidy. But there is a catch! Special committee will be checking living condition of property rented by IDPs, and report whether subsidy is advisable.
2. All the IDPs currently receiving housing and utility state subsidy will have to resubmit application and declaration.
#FreeEXCLUSIVE
Four environmental problems on both sides of separation line: What is going on and what can be expected in the nearest future
What facilities are left at the uncontrolled territory? What state are they in? What threat do separation line sumps present to the region? Swamps and salt flats – prognosis for the territories with discontinued mine drainage.
What can be done to avoid worst case scenario for Donbas ecological system?
For a comment on the issue FreeСХІД.ua turned to the State Inspector of Environmental Protection of Donetsk region Serhiy Bufistov, who works at the State Environmental Inspection since 1996.
Read more about environmental risks of today’s Donbas.
#FreeLECTURE
Donetsk historian and religious studies scholar Ihor Kozlovsky, who was held captive by “DNR” Russia-supported militants and released last year, gave a Freedom lecture at Lviv Media Forum. Follow this link for his full story or watch video on Youtube.
“As I was staying there in detention, I established my own algorithm, a thought. Those who think about others survive, rather than those who only think of themselves. Captivity really limits choice, which means increased desire of freedom. Under such conditions you don’t have a choice where to live or who to interact with. But you can keep thinking, you can keep developing your inner world, observe yourself and the others around you, help people. And you can choose your personal position on the outside world.”
Media Forum discussed the fact that Donbas media and information they try to deliver is not perceived as trustworthy by Donbas residents. There are Donetsk\Luhansk media editors and journalists among our subscribers, so we would like to share a few recommendations.
What should Ukrainian media do to win trust of Donbas residents – advice by Natalia Lihacheva, Halyna Petrenko and Yevhen Oliynyk (PO “Director-Media”)
- Less politics – more practical advice;
- Separate political and war issues from entertainment – military issues are not perceived properly when mixed with entertaining content;
- Provide specific examples on how to address problems at hand, say, how to form Apartment Owner Association, how to get through to local authorities;
- Don’t tell people that media will help them. They should learn how to help themselves;
- Criticism of authorities should come with explanation – what can be changed;
- Involve local experts – give your audience opinion of their neighbor;
- Refrain from negative statements towards those who stayed on the occupied territory;
- Give people not just hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but make them feel proud of their country;
- Pay more attention to presentation. Be attentive to detail and careful in picking words.
#FreeQUOTE
There were 8200 IDPs registered with the State Employment Service in 2018. According to lead researcher for the Institute of Demography and Social Studies of the Ukrainian Academy of Science Lidia Tkachenko, the State Employment Service is pressed for money, so they try to place IDPs at any job available. However, employers tend not to share with the employment service the information on job positions that pay well.
“When it comes to IDPs, there are some specifics. These are mostly people who moved from Luhansk and Donetsk regions and were previously employed at industrial facilities - skilled workers used to salaries higher than in other regions of Ukraine. And, of course, there might be problems dealing with people who did not have much of a choice of where to relocate, or enough money to make decent life for themselves at the new place. And, provided they settled in a small town or location where there are no jobs that correspond their qualification, - it is a major problem”.
#FreeINFOGRAPHICS
What to do if you are a resettler and need to get or update Ukrainian passport? What to do if you don’t have an IDP status certificate? And, more importantly, what is the procedure for those who reside on occupied territory and need to pass checkpoints to get their passport issued?
#FreeNUMBER
High technologies take over Luhansk region one step at a time. Since the beginning of 2018 three electric cars were registered with the regional DMV. Last year there were 6 such vehicle registrations.
All in all, this January 793 Ukrainians became proud owners of electric vehicles, and Nissan Leaf is still the most popular model.
#FreeNEWS
World Embroidery Day and Europe Day transform the cities of Donbas.
In Svatovo about 500 residents marched the city wearing national embroidered shirts. Most of the participants were school kids happy to share the info on who embroidered their outfits - Moms and Grannies. On May 17 Parade of Embroideries took place in Siverodonetsk: residents marched along the Central Avenue wearing embroidered outfits and carrying Ukrainian national banners.
Stanytsia Luhanska activists ran a flash mob “With embroidery at heart”. Flash mob participants danced at central square. Starobilsk celebrated not just Embroidery Day, but also Europe Day. Local schoolkids marched along the city streets wearing national costumes of different countries. The march was followed by a concert at the city square.
Europe Day turned Pokrovsk (Donetsk region) international – delegations from other cities came to Pokrovsk wearing European national costumes. And the Chairman of Donetsk Civil-Military Administration Pavlo Zhibovsky made a promise: even after return of occupied Donetsk, Europe Day celebrations will be held in Pokrovsk.
Two marches took place in Maryupil on Embroidery Day. One of them was organized by the authorities, the other - by local activists, volunteers and entrepreneurs. Similar parades took place in Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Bakhmut and other cities.
Russia will impose ban on entry of commercial traffic, and shuttle buses from the territory of separate districts of Donetsk and Luhansk region (SDDLR) before and during the football World Cup.
Border guards of Federal Security Service of Russia will enhance control of the whole section of the Russian-Ukrainian uncontrolled border.
Sacura cherry will soon bloom in Rubizhne. The trees were planted and received as gift from Japan via UNDP and UNISEF program.
This week the city of Slavyansk got plenty of media attention. Not for a good reason, though. The city authorities decided to update entrance stela and get the name of the city written in Ukrainian. Despite good intention, the project turned to failure as “Slavyansk” was spelled with three errors. How did it happen? “Donbas” TV tells the story.
The movie “Donbas” by Ukrainian director Serhiy Loznytsia won the Best Director Prize in Un Certain Regard competition at the 71st Cannes Film Festival.
#FreePEOPLE
Oleksandr SHULENIN, Donetsk-Zaporizhzhia
Oleksander Shulenin lost his business in Donetsk and invested all of his savings in his own IT-service.
Though initially Oleksander planned to buy a home with this money, today he is founder of rooky.pro service - booking platform for beauty services and self-employed beauticians.
2500 beauty specialists are registered at the platform. According to Shulenin, the data base has been growing organically in the last 4 to 5 months. The team does not need to spend money to attract new beauticians. Starting December 2017 over 10 000 bookings were made via the service, and the number grows exponentially.
The team plans to expand to international markets. Ukraine is not the best country for operating and developing a business in beauty industry. Even in neighboring Poland few times more people turn to beauty specialists for services.
For rooky.pro the Ukrainian market is just a convenient experimentation ground.
“There is detailedt data available for 2012. In Germany, 80% of all women who die their hair do it with a pro, and only 20% do it at home. In Ukraine the situation is exactly the opposite – only 20% women go with the specialist, and 80% do it themselves. Price difference is another issue.”
Mykyta NAKALIUZHNY, Maryupil
Mykyta is a hairdresser who studies at Maryupil Professional Machine-building College. A few days ago he went to the surgical floor at local hospital and gave free haircut to all the soldiers there. Unexpected? There is always something that is within our powers and can be done to make the world a little better!
#FreeHISTORY
We decided to add some history to this issue. 90 years ago, on May 18, 1928, Shakhta engineers and technicians were put on trial on false accusations of sabotage.
Shakhtinsky trial became a starting point of full-force persecution of specialists by the Bolsheviks. It all started with death of a worker due to accident at one on Shakhta’s mining sites.
In the course of the next year the accident investigation turned into “exposure” of large-scale “saboteur organization” and the case got a chilling name of the “Case about economic counter-revolution in Donbas”.
The first piece on this matter with provocative name “How Donbas was put to its knees for the first time in history” is not a study, but rather an opinion of history observer at “Novoye Vremia” magazine - Oleg Shama. His view on the case is fresh; however he made a miniscule mistake. Author states: “before the war Pavel Besposhchadny will write his famous – ‘No one has ever brought Donbas to its knees, and no one ever will,’ – though the verse was written amidst the war in 1942.
Another interesting reading on the matter is “Shakhtinsky case. How 90 years ago Communists got rid of the first rebuilders of Donbas”.
#FreeANNOUNCEMENT
Short story collection «Voice of War: stories of veterans» was written by participants of hostilities in the East of Ukraine. The book presentation will take place May 24 at 6:30 pm at Vilna Khata platform (Kramatorsk).
This story book is a result of social project “Voice of War: school of journalism for ATO veterans” a two month course for veterans taught by famous Ukrainian writers, bloggers and journalists.
Have a nice week!