Preserving cultural heritage in times of war: MHP tells about implemented projects

The MHP Community Foundation and MHP support the demand for Ukrainian culture by helping communities preserve cultural values. Pavlo Moroz, Director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Department at MHP, spoke about the projects implemented by the Foundation and the company during a panel discussion "Cultural Diplomacy: Ways of Development" at the Bouquet Kyiv Stage Festival 2024, reports UNN.

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In particular, he explained how the Cinema for Victory project was launched.

At some point, it became obvious that this war was going to last. And it was even more obvious that we would not lose it. We contacted our partner, the head of the Watch Ukrainian! Andriy Rizol, and our Open Air Cinema project was transformed into the Cinema for Victory project

"At some point, it became obvious that this war was going to last. And it was even more obvious that we would not lose it. We contacted our partner, the head of the Watch Ukrainian! Andriy Rizol, and our Open Air Cinema project was transformed into the Cinema for Victory project," he said.

In addition, MHP-Hromada has taken care of Ukrainian museums. Among other things, the foundation reconstructed the main entrance to the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine. The previous one was built in the 70s of the last century. The new entrance was designed with the museum's landscape features in mind and the tourist demands of visitors from Ukraine and abroad.

Last year, MHP-Hromada launched a project to restore five museums. Thanks to this project, five local museums - of Trypillian culture, prominent Ukrainians Vasyl Stus, Vasyl Symonenko, Mykola Leontovych, and Vyacheslav Chornovil - have updated their entrance areas, exhibits, and purchased the necessary equipment to attract tourists.

he names such as Stus, Symonenko, Leontovych, and Shevchenko are the names that we have drawn attention to not even in the context of national museums, but in the context of local histories. We are talking about the places where their descendants live, where the memory of these people remains. We went there and offered to help. And this story began to gain popularity. The descendants and heirs of these people who live in Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, and Kyiv regions are already willing to work with us to promote this story in the context of the Ukrainian state and are looking into the international context. So we are now highlighting the story for Europeans, for the United States. After all, everyone has their own history, and everyone was affected by this war

Moroz also spoke about an important project for MHP-Hromada to restore a library in a de-occupied village in the Kyiv region. We are talking about Rudnytske. In 2022, the village was occupied by the Russian military. They burned down a local school, shelled a number of other infrastructure facilities, and destroyed and damaged private homes of local residents. The premises of the local club, which housed the library, were also damaged. The library itself had its doors smashed in and books with Ukrainian symbols trampled on.

Last year, thanks to benefactors, the club managed to create a creative space for children from Rudnytske. The next step was to restore the library. The library was restored within the framework of the grant competition "Strengthening public participation in early recovery processes in the liberated territories", administered by ISAR "UNITED" with the support of the Partnership for a Strong Ukraine Foundation, funded by partner countries in cooperation with the MHP-Community Foundation. The premises were completely renovated (walls, ceiling, floor), new furniture and some books were purchased.

In addition to the library, the village's school was destroyed. There was no hope that funding would be found to rebuild it. We drew attention to the problem in the media: we told the story and revealed the problem of the absence of a school. This information was regularly reported in the media and became a catalyst for the state to allocate funds for the school's restoration. And this is the power of the cultural projects that we started implementing at the end of 2022: we attracted media attention, and the state provided funding

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 operations 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 war zone, 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.