I am a social educator by profession. During his student years, he was already looking for opportunities to volunteer in this sector, because he sought to acquire practical skills, rather than study theory. Since the 2000s, I have been constantly involved in the implementation of social projects, worked in social services for the youth of Kyiv, and now I coordinate the educational program at the Friends of Children Foundation.

There are many challenges in the field of charity, especially the misunderstanding in our society of the whole essence of charity. Sometimes we come across situations when people call and say, "I have something I don't need, and you come, pick it up, and give it to the orphans." For most, charity is just that. That is, there is no understanding of charity programs that help a person cope with life situations.

People do not see the long-term consequences of charity, but act simultaneously. Pseudo-charity is widespread in Ukraine, when various companies help at once. For them, the first priority is not the impact of their help on society, but the opportunity to write about it in the media and take photos. This is actually a fake charity that only does harm. Therefore, the challenge faced by some philanthropists is to clearly explain the impact of their activities. This is important, because now, if a person makes a charitable contribution, he wants that money to buy ice cream for a child who will smile. Sometimes it is difficult for people to see the distant goal of a project or program.

In order to introduce certain changes in the culture of charity and in the activities of this sector in Ukraine, it is necessary to constantly learn. During the quarantine period I personally managed to pass three courses. Two organized by international organizations on project management and youth work, the third on transparency and accountability of ProCharity. The last project was an opportunity for me to learn more about the work of charitable organizations of Ukraine, to learn something new from their experience, and then to implement it in their activities. It was also interesting to analyze the values ​​of different organizations.

The knowledge I gained will definitely be useful to me, because soon our foundation plans to implement several educational projects. It will be a good opportunity to use the knowledge from online courses and organize the work so as to make the projects more effective for the participants. That is why I am grateful to the Klitschko Foundation for the opportunity to study and improve in my profession.