Yulia Bilyk lived with her husband and two children in the Volnovakha district of Donetsk region. The family had their own business: her husband worked with mobile attractions, and Yulia decorated various locations with balloons for the holidays. The business was successful, a client base and regular customers were formed, including large chains such as Eva, Petrykivka Sausages, schools, kindergartens, studios, cultural centers, etc.
Letters to St. Nicholas were a successful area. Yulia developed the design and wrote individual texts for customers, including not only children but also adults and the elderly.
In February 2022, Yulia's family moved to the village of Manzhelia in the Kremenchuk district of Poltava region.
Initially, the family focused their efforts on informational support for other IDPs - they opened a Telegram channel "Help for IDPs" where they collected useful information for IDPs.
Several times in Manzhelia, Yulia decorated festive locations in the local kindergarten and school with balloons, but she did not dare to start this business in Poltava region.
However, she remembered her long-standing idea of creating educational games for young children: she was looking for quality games and toys, and came to the point where she was inventing things that were interesting to the child. That's how she came to making games with small Velcro elements.
The displaced woman develops bright designs on her own, invents an educational game and brings it to life. At first, she tested it by trying out a few copies, which she gave to her friends. Then she realized that not only children but also their mothers liked these games.
Thanks to participation in the project from the Red Cross office in Ukraine, the woman purchased the necessary equipment. And after participating in a grant program from the NGO Children's Villages, she raised an additional amount and expanded production.
Thanks to the Business Incubator, a community of women who have several training areas, she still receives mentoring support, an interesting community, and the help of a professional accountant.
The range of products Yulia produces includes more than 40 different types of games, several books, and reusable write-and-wipe notebooks.
Now the woman is confident about the future. She doesn't give in to difficulties - she sees every challenge as an experience, an opportunity to harden herself to develop further.
Yulia Bilyk dreams that peace will come, that she will be able to realize herself as a businesswoman, and that her educational games, Lipka Play, will become a well-known brand.
"In the future, we plan to create jobs and develop our product range, so nothing is impossible when you have a will!" says Yulia.
Ukrainian people are creative and talented! Together to Victory!
