Flashes
At the beginning of 2024, the Vidnova program consisted of two program lines: Vidnova Fellowship and Vidnova Lab. In our publication Vidnova Storyline, we detail how each program line came about, its impact on the fellows, and their project ideas. In addition, we shine a light on what we have learned as an organization and where we are headed.
Interviews with fellows from Vidnova Fellowship
Handpicked fellows’ projects
“Ukraine Known Unknown” aims to shed light on some lesser-known personalities in the Ukrainian cultural scene. Founded by the Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin, “Ukraine Known Unknown” on April 21-23, 2023, was a three-day series of documentary screenings followed by discussions dedicated to prominent but unknown art figures from Ukraine in Berlin.
Journalists and editors from various publications such as Reuters or BBC, as well as freelance writers from Germany and Spain, shared many valuable tips with Ukrainian NGOs on how to make their organizations known to the world. This exchange is summarized in a practical online guideline.
The project aims to support new Ukrainian women in Germany through helpful YouTube videos with experts and build network connections between Ukrainian female activists nationwide. The project is designed for females who fled to Germany from Ukraine and are a vulnerable group by definition, having their professional and personal identity distorted and having to start a new (often temporary) life from scratch. The project continues the pre-war activities of Iryna in Ukraine, focused on women’s empowerment. It includes the components of human rights protection (making informational videos for women who fled the war, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities) and non-formal education.
A series of videos that finally answer “why-why” questions about sex that we were too embarrassed to ask.
“Romani alphabet” includes the creation of a mobile application, a cartoon, a workbook, and video lessons aimed at learning the letters and sounds of the Romani language. These materials are freely available on the Internet to anyone who wants to learn to read in the Romany language but cannot attend educational institutions.
Creating a printed German, Ukrainian, and English exhibition catalogue. This publication reveals the concept of a century of wars in Europe with an emphasis on World War I and the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as well as documents the exhibition “From 1914 till Ukraine” in Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and a precedent for cooperation between German and Ukrainian organizations.
Interviews with Vidnova Lab participants
Cultural infrastructure
“Cultural infrastructure can help provide a human dimension to the recovery of Ukraine, celebrate local assets and identities of hromadas (communities), and promote inclusion and (re)integration. Culture is one of the drivers of local development and a means to strengthen human capital and innovation mindset in communities.”
Education
“Education is an important base and a starting point for recovery. It shall be different and various, engaging and accessible to everyone. At the same time, education can be used as an instrument to engage communities, for example, through community-based learning.”
Mental Health and Resilience
“In a country scarred by war, therapeutic horticulture plants seeds of recovery, nurturing both the land and our spirits, proving that even in devastation, we can grow resilience and find healing by connecting with nature.”
Work with vulnerable groups
“The war has deepened existing inequalities and has created new ones. Therefore, collective effort is needed to meet the needs of vulnerable population groups. In this regard, providing a long-term, secure, and affordable housing infrastructure, whether by enabling the defense of renters rights or establishing a functional social housing fund, is of crucial importance for the just recovery of Ukraine.”
Green Recovery
“We must take into account the context of climate change adaptation and mitigation in the process of Ukraine's development and reconstruction processes.”
Participatory urban development
“Revival is already going wrong – for example, mistakes are made when municipalities plant trees without consulting the public. It happens that additional money is poured in without ensuring a better quality. There is a challenge to creating conditions to overcome the siloed perception of community reconstruction and consider the interplay in context, or recovery simply will be ineffective”