"Workshop in English Language and Leadership" Project by Lyudmyla Krasnytska

The closer we are getting to Global Youth Service Day - the harder our alumni work on their projects!

It is only 2 weeks till GYSD, and we hope that you have already come up with plans for the biggest community service weekend in the World!

Meanwhile, here is a story from another Ukrainian alumna - Lyudmyla Krasnytska who is going to organize seminars for youth to help them develop their communication and leadership skills!

Community service in Ukraine is something that you have to explain for a long time if you want people to understand what exactly you are doing. Frankly speaking, I don’t want to think about the reasons for this, I’d like to concentrate on ways how to change it, how to make it an ordinary thing for Ukrainians to help their communities.

In 2009 I was lucky to go to the USA as a FLEX exchange student. And that’s where I learnt how community service really works during the GYSD in April, 2010 at a very big bay clean-up in Miami. So when I came back, I felt like my life was lacking something. Later in the summer of 2010 I participated in the program called CACTUS (Community Action Ukrainian Style) and there it was – this burning desire to make a change! It is the initiative of Illya Symonenko, a 19 year old Ukrainian activist, who wasn’t afraid of anything but wanted to show the others how to improve their community life. At CACTUS I learnt how to properly organize small community projects, and my debut was successful and inspiring. How could anyone stop loving projects after that?

I kept coming to CACTUS every year since then, and in 2012 I was already a staff member. In 2013 I was honored to be one of the 4 directors of the Program. I met so many young people who wanted to make Ukraine a better place! My team members Ulyana, Alison and Keith are exactly the people I’ve always dreamt to work with! They truly believe in everything they are doing, and they devote 100% of their knowledge, skills, time and effort to make CACTUS better! It’s unbelievable too how many FLEX alumni join us every year.

Organizing WELL seminars is a part of the CACTUS Program that helps teens to gain knowledge and skills in project management. By the end of the program teenagers are able to organize a small community service project on their own. Some of these initiatives are a clean-up, blood drive, working at orphanages, HIV/ AIDS awareness seminars, etc. Around 750 teenagers and their communities benefit from our program every year.  As they say, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. This single step is what most

people need to achieve something big. This is what we give them at CACTUS, a basis to build their big projects on. And WELL seminars give Ukrainian youth an opportunity to become a part of CACTUS, so they are a very sufficient stage of the whole project. Attending a seminar like this, pupils realize that their future depends on them, and if they want to make their communities better, they can!

I know that whatever we do for our communities – whether it is a lecture for 10 people, or a small clean-up, or a huge seminar series, like WELL – it will bring a lot of positive changes because we’re driven by the same goal. And every year we all prove it to ourselves by the successful projects of our alumni in different parts of Ukraine!

Lyudmyla Krasnytska

FLEX'10

Wow, we find Lyudmyla's words to be very inspiring! Here is an example of how a group of people driven by the same ideas and desires can come up with something truly outstanding! Good job!

By the way, here is a link to CACTUS' promo video where you can learn more about this program!

Any of you can do anything like this! You just need enthusiasm and a desire to change the World! Do you really feel this way? Then join us on Global Youth Service Day - 2013! And keep in touch with our blog! Take care! ;)