‘Many thanks to volunteers from all of us!’ — under this slogan on June 27th, 2013, in the premises of Club of the Cabinet of the Ministers of Ukraine the results of National Contest ‘Volunteer of the year 2012’were announced.

23 volunteers from different regions of Ukraine were granted awards in six nominations based on evaluation results of expert commission, and seven of them were announced the winners.

 The representatives of government, diplomatic institutions, international donor organizations and leading Ukrainian CSOs came to congratulate the winners.
Welcoming speeches were made by Tetiana Andriichuk, Head of Communication and PR Department of the Secretariat of Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and Mirja Peterson, Head of Section for Reform Support of Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine.

We are very glad to join and support the initiative to organize contest ‘Volunteer of the Year’ — started Tetiana Andriichuk.

More than a half of Swedes are constantly engaged in volunteering activities, — emphasized Mirja Peterson. Without this Sweden would stop as a country, I am not exaggerating.

Acknowledging the role of volunteering is essential feature of every developed society. Joint efforts of the public, government and business allows adequately praise the contribution of volunteers to the development of our country. We are happy to gather outstanding stories of volunteers from all over Ukraine within the National contest ‘Volunteer of the Year 2012’. Their voices should be heard, and their efforts should be properly evaluated, because with the hands of these concerned people the real values of civic society are carefully created — added Tetiana Lysenko, Director of volunteering centre ‘Good Will’.

The podium discussion ‘What is needed for the further development of volunteering movement in Ukraine’ has started after the prize presentation ceremony.

Please, follow this link for more photos.
Video with the most interesting moments of the ceremony.

More detailed information concerning the contest, nominations and winners you can see here.

About the contest: National Contest ‘Volunteer of the Year’ is aimed to obtain acknowledgement of volunteers’ work, who implement changes within their community, and popularization of volunteering in all regions of Ukraine.

Organizer: Volunteering Centre ‘Dobra Volia’.

Event was organized with the support of the, Secretariat of Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of Ukraine, Government of Sweden and GURT Resource Centre.