Olena Kashuba is a participant of the regional competition "Woman of Donetsk Region" in 2025, nomination "Creator of Changes and Opportunities"
Olena Kashuba has been working in the field of culture for over eleven years. She began her career as a methodologist at the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Sloviansk District State Administration, and today she heads this area in the Cherkasy settlement territorial community. She believes that art is a spiritual pillar of the nation, a source of strength and inspiration in times of struggle for freedom.
Olena unites people around important ideas and heads the public organization Light of Dreams. UA". Together with her colleagues in the community, she is currently implementing an important project "Supporting Mental Well-Being and Developing Women's Leadership in the Cherkasy Community" at the Humanitarian Hub. The initiative was made possible by winning a mini-grant competition by the Tenth of April NGO with the support of the UN Refugee Agency in Ukraine.
Since 2023, Olena has also been in charge of youth and family policy in the community. Thanks to her persistence, the Initiative youth center resumed its work, and a youth council was established at the Cherkasy village council. This allowed young people to become more actively involved in community life and implement their own ideas.
Thus, together with young people, a number of important initiatives have been implemented, including the Green Loft project and the MobilCenter, Dialogues for Change, and Bank of Ideas 3.0 mini-projects. Olena does her best to ensure that every young resident of the community has a space for development and unleashing their potential.
It actively cooperates with partner communities within the framework of the National Project "Side by Side: United Communities" by organizing joint events that help form a single cultural space. One of the important events of 2025 was a large-scale charity concert in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Pomichnyanska community in Kirovohrad region with the participation of amateur groups from the Cherkasy community theater group.
Her belief is simple yet profound: culture is also our weapon that heals, gives strength and inspires. Even in the most difficult times, Olena strives to keep the light of dreams alive in people's hearts, and the community to keep faith in its own future!
Read the detailed story of the contestant here: https://surl.li/gmyxbu