Participant of the regional contest “Young Person of the Year - 2025” in the nomination “Heart devoted to Donetsk region” Anna Smetaniuk
Until February 24, 2022, Anna Smetaniuk held the position of Deputy Director of the Mariupol District Center for Social Services. She has been working in the social sector since 2015. For six years, together with her colleagues, Anna has been helping low-income families, families raising orphans and children deprived of parental care, as well as all families in difficult life circumstances, including internally displaced persons.
Since 2015, the Mangush community has been hosting IDPs. They were registered at the Mangush district center of social services for families, children and youth. More than 2000 families received humanitarian, psychological and financial assistance from charitable foundations. Social work specialists, in turn, provided social services to support families: they assisted in finding housing, restoring documents, helping to enroll children in kindergartens and schools, and helping parents find jobs.
Since 2021, while working at the Mariupol District Center for Social Services, Anna has been active in the Sartan and Kalchytsia communities, whose villages were included in the list of frontline areas.
Anna has always been involved in public life and participates in large projects. Among them are a mobile team of social and psychological assistance to victims of domestic violence or gender-based violence (a project of the Ukrainian Public Health Foundation), as well as a project of charitable assistance to IDPs and the most vulnerable families affected by the conflict in Ukraine (from the Ukrainian Foundation for the Well-Being of Children). Many other projects have been implemented to support and protect socially vulnerable groups.
Anna is a member of the Azov Patriot NGO. The purpose of this organization is to help and support military personnel, patriotic education of young people, and assistance to families in difficult life circumstances.
After the full-scale invasion, all of Anna's plans, both professional and personal, were destroyed. She spent some time in the occupation, and only in March 2022 was she able to leave for the government-controlled territory of Ukraine.
Now, Anna is officially engaged in volunteer activities aimed at helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine, soldiers performing combat missions, and those in hospitals.
"I have been helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine for 9 years. From 2016 to 2022, I helped those who fought in the Mariupol sector, and since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, I have been helping soldiers from the Mangush community, wounded in hospitals and units of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade, where my husband and his comrades serve. The guys are holding the line in the area of active hostilities in my native Donetsk region, so it is a direct duty for me personally to support them!" says Anna.
In April 2022, Anna's husband and his comrades were captured during the defense of Mariupol. Together with other relatives of the prisoners of war, they began to fight for the return of the city's defenders: meetings with the relevant authorities regarding exchanges, actions in support of prisoners of war and missing persons, and collecting packages for those released from captivity. After 29 months of fighting for the freedom of her husband, who returned as part of the exchange on September 13, 2024, she continues to fight for all other prisoners.
Since Anna and her husband have been through the recovery process together, they actively help the released soldiers reintegrate and return to normal life as soon as possible.
Anna emphasizes her civic position: "Ukraine is my home!
Ukraine is a free and independent country! That is why we believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and help them. Together to Victory!"