Before the New Year, the father of a fallen pilot from Vinnytsia region realized his dream: he opened his own veterinary clinic with grant funds

Mykola Bondarenko, the winner of the project to support veteran business #Worth Doing Your Own, from the city of Lypovets in Vinnytsia region, built and opened a round-the-clock veterinary clinic with an X-ray machine and ultrasound for animals in 6 months, UNN reports.

He also purchased a car to travel and provide medical care to livestock in the community. The veterinary clinic is extremely necessary for local animal owners and farmers, because now they have to travel to veterinary clinics in the regional center to treat their animals. 

"I was very nervous about starting my business because the building in which the veterinary clinic was set up was in very poor condition. In April this year, I started working on the repair and arrangement of the veterinary clinic and veterinary pharmacy. At the end of August, most of the work was already done. The name of the veterinary clinic "BMW" stands for the following: "If it hurts, we will cure it". My services as a veterinarian were  so much in demand that the queue for an appointment is scheduled for two months in advance," says Mykola Bondarenko, founder of the veterinary clinic, winner of the competition to support veteran businesses #Worth Doing Your Own. 

Mykola Bondarenko's story touches and motivates at the same time

Mykola Bondarenko worked in the district administration and as the chief veterinarian of a local enterprise. But then came the full-scale war that took his son Serhii, an MI-8 helicopter navigator, on March 6, 2022. Due to emotional turmoil, the man suffered a stroke, which forced him to quit his job. 

According to Mykola Bondarenko, the competition to support veteran businesses #WorthDoingYourWay actually brought him back to life.  After receiving the grant, he bought a building in Lipovka, where he opened a veterinary pharmacy and clinic. 

Now Mykola Bondarenko dreams of opening an animal shelter. There are a lot of cats and dogs, but there is no such facility in Lipovka or in the surrounding communities. Next, Mykola Bondarenko wants to open a hotel for animals so that people leaving the city can temporarily leave their pets behind. 

Watch Mykola Bondarenko's story from the series of stories about the winners of the competition to support veteran businesses  #Worthwhile "Do Your Own"

"An important task for the country and big business is to reintegrate the military and their families into social life. Opportunities to start their own business are exactly what can help them feel needed and strong at home. Supporting small businesses can be a key factor in the country's economic recovery. Small and medium-sized enterprises create jobs, pay taxes to local budgets, satisfy regional consumer demand, and this stimulates the circulation of money, increasing the well-being of communities," said Tatiana Volochai, Director of the MHP-Community Foundation. 

In early 2023, the MHP-Community Charitable Foundation, in partnership with the Ukrainian Veterans Fund of the Ministry of Veterans, organized the #Worth Doing Your Own competition. Under the terms of the competition, ten  Ukrainians - veterans and their families, as well as the families of the fallen - received from UAH 500,000 to UAH 1.5 million to develop their own businesses.

"Since 2022, 440 businesses have received UAH 163.8 million from the Ukrainian Veterans Fund for development. One of these projects is Mr. Mykola's pharmacy. We are confident that it will benefit the residents of the Lipovetska community and the entire country. Supporting veteran businesses and being there for them is our way of thanking veterans and their families," says Ruslana Velychko-Trifoniuk, acting executive director of the Ukrainian Veterans Fund of the Ministry of Veterans.

Mykola Bondarenko was visited by 30 participants of the project "Support for Microenterprise of War Veterans and Their Families: From Idea to Implementation in Vinnytsia Oblast" to learn how to submit successful grant applications and share their experience of starting their own business. 

Watch from the opening of Mykola Bondarenko's veterinary clinic and veterinary pharmacy