Ukrainian community “Vodohray”

Ukrainian community “Vodohray” (Sillamäe). A brief overview of activities in 2023.

The Ukrainian community Vodohray does a great deal of work thanks to projects supported by the Integration Foundation and the Estonian Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture. Among them are the projects “Travel Map of Ukrainians in Estonia” (thanks to which we still tell people on our trips how Ukraine and Estonia are connected), “Patsiorky” (a game enjoyed not only by the children of our Sunday school but also in other cities of Estonia, in Ukraine and abroad) and “Books – Treasures of Humanity” (we catalogued our library and collected information about the libraries of other national societies in Estonia).

2023 was no exception. Here are this year’s projects: the international project “Developing Cooperation 2023” under the European programme “Learning Mobility of Individuals”. The project activities took place on 24–28 August in the Latvian cities of Rēzekne, Jēkabpils and Riga. The project was co-funded by the European Union.

We received support from the Integration Foundation for the Ukrainian-language training “With Ukraine in the Heart”, which consists of 4 sessions. Each session is a three-day residential camp with learning based on a set programme. The aim of the training is to preserve traditions related to the Ukrainian language and cultural heritage, to maintain the connection with the Ukrainian language and cultural space and to keep them alive among children and young people. The project involves Ukrainian children and young people aged 10 to 19 from Ida-Virumaa. The sessions took place in April, June and August 2023 on the themes of spiritual, folk and high Ukrainian culture. In October the project “With Ukraine in the Heart” was completed with the fourth session, “Contemporary Ukrainian Culture”.

The cooperation between the Vodohray community and the Narva youth centre VITATIIM in the project “From Family to Country”, funded by the European Union, was interesting and productive. 5 families from Sillamäe and 5 families from Narva (45 people) took part in the project; they got to know each other and proposed their own initiatives in Estonian society. In Sillamäe, the Women’s Club, the “Box of Creativity” club and the group “Hello! We are from Ukraine” worked successfully and actively from June to October.

In Narva the initiatives “Creative Support”, “Therapy for the Soul” and the “Circus Studio” club were active. The participants involved more than 100 people in the events of their initiatives. The programme of the “Box of Creativity” club was supported by Sillamäe City Council. Information about the events is published on social media and on the websites. (Üritus toimus ‘From Family to society vol.2’ projekti raames. Projekti kaasrahastab Euroopa Liit Euroopa naabrusinstrumendi raames. Estonian EU external border programme 2014-2020).

In early December 2023 the children and youth festival “Mykolai-Fest” took place. The Ukrainian community Vodohray of Sillamäe founded it in 2013, holds it every year and has experience of running it in a hybrid format. In 2023 “Mykolai-Fest” was supported by the Ministry of Culture, the Integration Foundation of Estonia and Sillamäe City Council.

Everyone who is close to and interested in Ukrainian culture is welcome! Let’s be together!

Our projects are described in detail in our newsletter “Ridna Khata” on our website and on social media.