#ShoulderToShoulder
An online meeting took place between students from Donetsk and Lviv regions, dedicated to volunteer activities during the war. Participants shared their experiences of assistance, which many of them joined from the very first days of the full-scale invasion and continue to be active in socially beneficial initiatives.
The event was organized by the TV and press studio "Pink Elephant" of the Children's and Youth Creativity Center in Dobropillia as part of the All-Ukrainian project "Shoulder to Shoulder: United Communities," aimed at uniting student youth around common values: civic consciousness, national unity, and an active life position.
During the meeting, students from the Dobropillia city community in Donetsk region and the Stryi city community in Lviv region shared their own experiences and views on the role of volunteering in wartime.
The Dobropillia community presented the volunteer activities of several educational institutions:
- Educational complex No. 4, whose students constantly participate in charitable initiatives and support the Defenders of Ukraine;
- Educational complex No. 7, where student self-government actively works to organize assistance for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and conducts patriotic events;
- Svitlivska school, whose volunteers make camouflage nets, procure thermal imagers, and prepare greeting gifts for holidays;
- Children's and Youth Creativity Center, where students actively engage in patriotic initiatives, and the "Pink Elephant" studio creates media materials about the volunteer activities of youth.
Young volunteers from Donetsk – Daria Rurich, Maria Smolyak, Yevheniya Gryshko, and Yevhen Kryvoruchkin – shared their own motivation for volunteering and ideas for possible joint initiatives with peers from other regions.
This meeting proved: despite the hundreds of kilometers between them, Ukrainian children are united by a common cause – to help, support, and inspire. Their activities are a manifestation of responsibility, conscious civic position, and love for their homeland.
Together – to Victory! Everything will be Ukraine!