Overcoming discouragement: in which communities in Ukraine local authorities do not let the volunteer movement disappear

In recent years, one can hear more and more often in society that in the third year of the full-scale Russian invasion, the volunteer movement in Ukraine is experiencing a certain decline. Some people say that due to the difficult economic situation, people are trying to save money in everything, and therefore have started to donate less to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Others complain that the government does not support volunteers, and that is why many of them have retired from the field. There is also some discrediting of the volunteer movement by fraudsters who raise funds and then disappear in an unknown direction. At the same time, practice shows that in those communities where local authorities are interested in the volunteer movement, it exists and develops, UNN writes.

The volunteer movement in the country began to develop actively in 2014, when Russia launched an undeclared war in the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. And since February 24, 2022, it has become truly large-scale.

According to some studies, more than 60% of the adult population of Ukraine was involved in volunteer activities to some extent in 2022. This includes people who hid funds to support the Armed Forces, organized fundraisers, helped to manufacture various items for the Ukrainian army, participated in the delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid, etc.

As for active volunteers, according to Opendatabot, at the end of 2023, almost seven thousand people were officially registered in Ukraine as volunteers. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, the number of official volunteers in Ukraine has increased more than 20 times.

It is difficult to say whether this is a lot or a little. However, it is highly likely that there is a significant number of people who continue to raise funds without official registration.

A certain downward trend in donations is alarming. OpenDataBot analyzed the amount of funds raised by three powerful all-Ukrainian charitable foundations during the two years of full-scale aggression. In 2022, their total fundraising exceeded 34 billion hryvnias. At the same time, 24 billion was raised in the first six months of the invasion.

In 2023, the total amount of fees collected by the same three funds did not exceed UAH 19 billion.

Of course, it should be borne in mind that these figures do not take into account the collections of a large number of foundations throughout Ukraine, as well as collections held by ordinary people. However, these figures give grounds to talk about certain problems of the volunteer movement and its support by Ukrainians.

Experts and politicians interviewed by UNN cite several similar reasons for this.   

In particular, political scientist Ruslan Bortnik believesthat society has to some extent exhausted the resources for such large-scale volunteer work as it was at the beginning of the war. In addition, several times the authorities have shot critical arrows at the volunteer movement. Some people are trying to turn the volunteer movement into their political platform.

Ukrainian MP Mykhailo Tsymbalyuk notesthat the difficult economic situation in the country objectively affects the fact that people are less supportive of the volunteer movement. There are also numerous cases when so-called volunteers appear and abuse the trust of our citizens.

At the same time, they both agree that the volunteer movement is strong in communities where it is supported by local authorities.

"Of course, where local authorities organize this process, where they support volunteers, where volunteers are involved in the work of local governments, supervisory boards, and supervisory councils, it stimulates them. There, volunteers are respected by the community. And there are communities where this is not supported, and, of course, volunteer movements are a bit restrained and people donate much less," says Tsymbalyuk.

"Where volunteers work closely with local governments, especially with strong mayors and city councils, this movement has become professionalized and is extremely successful. Where this is not the case, the volunteer movement remains disorganized, unsystematic and unsuccessful," adds Bortnyk.

An example of fruitful cooperation between local authorities and volunteers is the Brovary community, where the well-known Gurtom UA Charitable Foundation has been operating since the fall of 2022. Its founder, Victoria Volynets, in an exclusive interview with UNN admitted that it is very difficult to engage in volunteer activities now, there is no support from the state, and people have become less active. But thanks to the fact that the authorities of the Brovary community support volunteers, I want to continue doing this and develop the volunteer movement.

"We have maximum cooperation with the Brovary City Council. If I have any questions, the mayor of Brovary, Ihor Sapozhko, will always respond and support me, and we, in turn, try to help and resolve issues.

When they contact me, I tell them what's here and how we can help, and there is always a response. That's why we always have contact with the authorities and the mayor. And thanks to this, we have direct contact with the community residents. People come to us, write on social media, for example, to ask for wheelchairs or crutches. Recently, we received a letter from a mother whose son has a disability. We gave them a special medical bed for the child," says Victoria Volynets.

The mayor of Brovary, Ihor Sapozhko, in turn, once again emphasizesthat the help of volunteers to the community, to the whole of Ukraine, to our army is invaluable.

"In many ways, it is thanks to people like Victoria that our country has continued to resist the aggressor for three years now. Sometimes it seems that people have started to get tired of the war, and are less supportive of the Armed Forces and IDPs. This should not be the case. That is why we, the authorities of the Brovary community, for our part, support the volunteers in every way possible. We try to solve all the urgent issues they have as quickly as possible," says Igor Sapozhko.