Promoting cohesion – preventing conflicts and violence

Context

Russian forces have been attacking Ukraine since 24 February 2022. This is bringing suffering to the Ukrainian civilian population above all. Many are living in fear and fight every day simply to exist. Supporting their resilience and social cohesion requires a strong civil society and partners.

Experts from the Civil Peace Service (ZFD) are in permanent contact with the population and are supporting them – albeit currently from outside Ukraine. In doing so, they are helping people to overcome the acute crises and not to lose sight of their previous goals.

Objective

Dialogue with those affected helps resolve tensions between population groups in communities without them having to resort to violence and assists the next generation in having a positive view of diversity.

Approach

Together with the state and civil society, the project develops peace-education approaches that emphasise commonalities and the value of diversity. These are currently being tested in national and regional school experiments,

Building on this, the project promotes coping with emotional stress and building resilience. For this purpose, materials are developed, online offers created and multipliers trained, who in turn offer their own training and forms of support. For participating teachers and psychologists, there are self-care services addressing issues such as burnout prevention.

The second field of activity is conflict management in communities affected by the large number of internally displaced people in the country. Internally displaced people receive psychological and legal counselling as well as social support. In addition, the project promotes communication and coordination with the municipalities and involves the local population in finding solutions.

The regional focus of the project includes regions in Western and Central Ukraine in addition to the three eastern administrative districts of Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhya, which directly border the embattled districts of Donetsk and Luhansk in the Donbass.

Last update: December 2022