"Do your own thing": an internally displaced person from Enerhodar opened a laboratory for the production of natural cosmetics in Kaniv
Kyiv • UNN
Olena Sobko, an immigrant from Enerhodar, opened a laboratory in Kaniv to scale up her natural cosmetics business after winning the Do It Yourself competition.
Olena Sobko, the winner of the "Do Your Own" business idea competition, has scaled up her natural cosmetics business. This was reported by MHP-Mironivska Poultry Farm, and UNN.
Details
Olena is an IDP from Enerhodar. Because of the war, she and her family left their hometown and have been living in Kaniv for over a year.
In Enerhodar, Olena had a stable job as a chemist at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, but she had to leave it for her own safety. She came to Kaniv district thanks to a friend from her student days. At first she lived with her family in Lipliava, and now she lives in Kaniv.
In the summer, she learned about the launch of the Do Your Own business idea competition organized by the MHP-Hromada charitable foundation and decided to use this chance to realize her long-held dream. And not in vain - Olena became one of the winners of the competition in Kaniv region, and recently she presented her small production.
I have been making natural cosmetics to order for over 6 years. But if I used to do it at home, now I have my own laboratory! This allows me to develop my favorite business, increase the scale of production and, accordingly, the customer base
Thanks to the grant funds of UAH 100 thousand, the entrepreneur purchased the necessary equipment: a water bath for melting waxes and emulsifiers, a sterilizer for containers, a mixer that can significantly increase the volume of simultaneous production, a homogenizer that makes the consistency of the mixtures homogeneous, and a dispenser. In addition, the woman purchased a laboratory PH meter, laboratory scales, and the necessary consumables at her own expense.
The range of cosmetics produced by Sobko includes hair, face and body care lines.
"My cosmetics are completely natural and contain no harmful ingredients. It contains natural oils, herbal extracts, etc. It also has a pleasant, non-synthetic smell, because I use only hydrolates - fragrant liquids made by steam distillation from flowers and herbs," Sobko said.
The "Do Your Own" contest is designed to support microbusiness, says Oleksandr Shpil, manager of MHP-Hromada.
"In this difficult time, we continue to invest in local business ideas and thus develop local communities. In Olena Sobko's case, this is even more valuable, as the grant support helped her start her own business in a new city," he said.
At the end of May, the organizers of the "Do Your Own" business idea competition for entrepreneurs in small towns and villages announced the winners of the 2023 edition. This year, the MHP-Hromada Charitable Foundation, which organized the competition, supported 80 business projects totaling more than UAH 7.4 million. A total of 615 applications were received from small entrepreneurs across the country. In particular, most business ideas were submitted in Kyiv (22%), Cherkasy (12%), Dnipro (11%), Vinnytsia (9%), and Lviv (9%) regions.
The main criteria for selecting the winners were project innovation, economic component, creation of new jobs, social significance, and involvement of IDPs in business or work. Both existing businesses that are expanding or relocating and entrepreneurs who have a business idea and are just looking for funding to implement it received grant support.
Help.
"MHP-Hromadas is a Ukrainian charitable foundation that started its operations in 2015. Its main mission is the comprehensive development of communities. The geography of its activities includes 12 regions of Ukraine: more than 700 towns and villages. Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Foundation has been systematically supporting people in the regions of hostilities, Ukrainian defenders and rescuers, communities, hospitals and maternity homes, charitable institutions that care for orphans and the elderly, as well as people who have lost their homes and livelihoods due to the war.
