Vidnova Fellows
We are proud to have supported over 230 fellows across all program lines. These dedicated professionals from Ukraine continue to shape civil society through their work in activism, human rights, education, culture, mental health and more.
Our fellows form a growing network — a space for connection, collaboration, and peer learning. We support them through community meetings, networking events, and access to the Bosch Alumni Network.
Our Fellows
Iryna Yatsyk
Fellowship
Iryna moved from Zhytomyr to Warsaw, Poland. Iryna is the founder and director of the non-formal education center “PROSTO” (Zhytomyr) and a psychotherapist. She is working on restoring the center to train youth and children toward public education.
Kira Okhriemenko
Fellowship
Public activist Kira was born in the Sumy region and now lives in Brovary, Kyiv region. She created a working environment for elderly women from the villages of Sumy Oblast within the “My.Relatives” project. Kira also became a speaker at the event dedicated to the anniversary of the full-scale invasion, “Cafe Kyiv – We Choose Freedom” on February 27, 2023, in Berlin.
Maria Kondratieva
Fellowship
Maria moved from Dnipro/Lviv to Utrecht (Netherlands). Maria is a choreographer, performer, teacher, and organizer of cultural events. She plans to work on her dance performance, “Fragility”, to open a space for contemporary dance and performance art representatives and conduct master classes on physical and dance practices.
Oksana Liutik is the CEO of the NGO Zminotvortsi, an educator, facilitator, and mentor with over 10 years of experience in formal and non-formal education. A graduate of the University of Warwick’s “Leadership for Educational Transformation” program, she leads projects that support young people across Ukraine. Her current focus is working with teens from small towns and villages, helping them grow through real-life experiences, role models, and strong support networks. She believes education, dialogue, and community-driven collaboration are key to Ukraine’s recovery and long-term transformation.
education
transformative education
youth empowerment
Maria Chuprinenko
Fellowship
Maria was born in Novomykolaivka, Kherson region. Now she lives in Kyiv. Maria, an actress and singer, organized a musical evening in Kyiv. It focused on singing folk songs for people forced to leave Kherson due to the war. Maria and her community performed songs of her authorship and folk songs that she usually sang with her family in Kherson on holidays.
Nataliia Mysak
Lab
Nataliia Mysak is an architect and independent researcher based in Lviv. She is currently developing the Spatial Practices Lab, focusing on alternative approaches to architectural production that can support emerging urban commons in times of crisis. Within this program, she is leading the research project “Architecture of New Alliances,” a horizontal university initiative that explores the commoning of architecture and seeks to uncover the potential of new disciplinary alliances.
participatory urban development
urban commons
spatial practices
participation
Olena is a researcher, cultural manager, senior analyst, and project coordinator. Her professional and research include cultural labor and cultural infrastructure, public participation, and grassroots activism.
In the frame of the Vidnova Lab topical cluster, Olena and Anna Karnaukh work on cultural infrastructure on a local level. They aim to find solutions to make cultural actors at the local level more capable of self-organization and regeneration. Strong local cultural actors can drive changes in their communities, even when state policies on reforming cultural infrastructure are paused or limited.
culture
local level
local culture
Alina Ponypalyak
Fellowship
Alina Ponypalyak moved from Kyiv to Krotosyn, Poland. Alina is a candidate for historical sciences. She will work on creating an educational and exhibition project dedicated to the heroes of the defense of Kyiv region, “Kyiv region – an outpost to freedom”, designed to show how the army, together with the people of Kyiv, repelled the attack of the enemy.
Oksana Stomina
Fellowship
Oksana moved from Mariupol to Germany, Munich. Oksana is a poet, writer, public figure, and founder of the NGO “Paperovi Shchy”. During the three weeks of the Mariupol blockade, she worked in a volunteer center and documented the horrors of Russian aggression. Now she has started work on a documentary book about Russia’s war in Ukraine – “WAR ON PEACE AVENUE. Stories of the blockaded Mariupol”. It is a collection of stories of Mariupol residents who suffered from the Russian invaders.
Vita Shneider & Iryna Shapovalova
NGO New Housing Policy
Lab
Vita is a housing researcher based in Lviv. Before the war, her research focus was developing a social housing system in Ukraine. Now, it has shifted to the right to housing in war-time. Iryna is based in Berlin and is a human rights lawyer with experience in documenting human rights violations and war crimes in eastern Ukraine since 2014. Following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, she works as a human rights consultant for international NGOs helping Ukraine.
Within Vidnova Lab they investigate the private rental market in Ukraine as it accommodates most internally displaced people (IDP). They work on creating a prototype of sustainable housing solutions for IDPs.
right to housing
vulnerability
displacement
IDPs
Diana Popfalushi & Inna Datsiuk
NGO Plato
Lab
Diana is an ecoactivist and project manager from Lviv. She’s a part of Plato NGO and works on local, national, and international climate policy. She is also involved in a community gardening project in Lviv named Rozsadnyk and a co-host of the environmental podcast “Poyasnyzaeco”. Inna also comes from Lviv, where she blends the healing essence of nature with psychotherapy to brighten people’s lives.
In the frame of Vidnova Lab, Diana and Inna have combined their passion for climate activism and mental health and found an interconnection between the two topics in building resilience through green spaces. They do both, help with climate change mitigation and adaptation, which is the field of Diana’s research, and provide therapeutic assistance to restore and maintain mental health, so Inna’s research topic.
mental health
therapeutic horticulture
healing through nature
Maria Semenchenko
Fellowship
Maria Semenchenko lived in Kyiv and then moved to Warsaw, Poland. Maria is a journalist published in such media as Gromadske, Reporters, Chitomo, and Local History. She will work on the project “Points of Pain. Guidebook”. It is a series of texts about places and cultural and historical objects that were tourist points on the map of Ukraine before the full-scale war, which were destroyed or damaged due to the war.
Nina Dyrenko is a landscape researcher, curator, and environmental educator currently leading the Environmental Education Department at the Askania-Nova Biosphere Reserve. Her work focuses on ecological storytelling, biodiversity conservation, and the development of public-facing projects such as exhibitions, books, and educational programs. Recent initiatives explore the intersection of war, nature, and public memory. She is also engaged in digital projects aimed at supporting the expansion of Ukrainian’s Nature Reserve Fund.
education
green recovery
post-war recovery
nature protection
Alina Bogdanovych
Fellowship
Alina Bogdanovych from Kharkiv was forced to move to Gdansk, Poland. Alina is an actress, director, theatre expert, cultural manager, and teacher. She plans to implement his play, “Song of Freedom”, the podcast “I-culture”, which is a platform for discussing current topics in the field of culture and art, as well as to resume the activities of the NGO “Platforma Theater Initiatives”.
Valeriya Guevska
Fellowship
Valeriya Guevska moved from Kyiv to Graz, Austria. Valeriya is working on publishing a magazine about underground culture, “Potop”. She plans to finalize the Dido typeface, dedicate it to the artist Andrii Sagaidakovsky, and make a video installation for the Konstruksia festival, where she wants to experiment with the ideas of poetic painting, abstract painting, and vernacular inscriptions.
Natalia Omelchuk
Fellowship
Natalia Omelchuk is from Vorzel, Kyiv region, from where she moved to Suwałki, Poland. She is a cultural manager working on the project Memories in Boxes. It is a space for women to meet, discuss, and debate issues related to the history and culture of Ukraine, as well as to share their common experiences and record their memories for preservation and further research.
social entrepreneurship
support for vulnerable groups
women support
returnees
