The Baranivka Interschool Resource Centre “Dreams in Action” has fulfilled its first protective facemasks sewing tender under the U-LEAD with Europe Programme’s initiative. On 10 June, 8,500 protective masks were sent to Kyiv to be further distributed among the most vulnerable hromadas of Ukraine.

The sewing coworking became one of the winners of the tender announced by Caritas Ukraine ICF within the “Support to Amalgamated Hromadas in Coping against the COVID-19 Pandemic” initiative of U-LEAD.

Thanks to the professional and fast work of the staff of Baranivka Interschool Resource Centre, as well as due to modern equipment purchased with EU funds under the “Youth Cluster of Organic Business of Baranivska AH” project, we managed to handle our first tender in a timely manner. I am grateful to the employees for their dedicated work,” said Vasyl Nazarchuk, director of the Baranivka IRC.

Small steps lead to big changes and “Youth Cluster of Organic Business" in Baranivska AH is a great example of that! Sewing coworking in Baranivka is a small step towards a new competitive and inclusive environment in the hromada. We continue to move forward by supporting local initiatives and implementing such projects,” said Frederik Coene, First Counsellor, EU Delegation to Ukraine.

The coworking space has been operating in the hromada for the second year. The new sewing machines are used both to teach children to sew and provide teachers with an opportunity to earn extra money from the tailor-made products. The project “Youth Cluster of Organic Business of Baranivska urban AH” is implemented with the financial support of the European Union and involves the construction of a transparent office, mini-cheese factory, interschool resource centre and the creation of three agricultural cooperatives. The hromada received 795,000 euros of grant funds to implement these ideas and is implementing this project together with the Civil Society Institute and the Galex-Agro farm.