Arthur, the President of the association and one of the organizers of the forum tells us more:
We identified two major problems for the NGOs present in Ukraine: the first one – the absolute lack of recognition of their activities on the ground (indeed there is no official status for either NGOs or volunteers who are in the eyes of the government on a tourist trip…), the second one – the lack of collaboration between the different NGOs.
As a result, Ukraine is Europe came up with the initiative to create the first forum in Ukraine dedicated to international NGOs, in order to try to solve our problems of interaction with the Ukrainian government but also to find a common ground between the different organizations in order to pool our efforts and be more effective, all together, on the ground.
The event took place in two stages:
First, a press conference was held at the Lviv Opera House, in the presence of official representatives of the city and the region, then a round table with representatives of most of the international NGOs present in Ukraine but also other NGOs and representatives of the city of Kyiv and the Ukrainian government via a Zoom connection. In total, 32 NGOs participated in the event.
Following this forum, a joint initiative aimed at the Ukrainian government was taken. Its goal is to create a national committee that would regulate the activity of international NGOs
and solve the bureaucratic problems that prevent us from moving forward in our humanitarian actions. In addition, this forum allowed a cooperation of international NGOs, which will allow us to pool our efforts on common projects, share our contacts and help each other in our respective actions.
Because we all have a common goal – to bring our victory closer and help as much as possible to the victims of the war.
