Power of Goodness in Ukraine

Peacebuilding UK, together with Odessa Mediation Group and our trainers/ partners from Chechnya, brought together our Power of Goodness partners from all over Ukraine for the first time 20-25 July, near Kiev. Following two days of getting to know each other, building trust and agreeing on a collection of old and new stories from Ukraine and abroad, we began the extensive work of creating a Ukrainian training manual. The manual will be a welcome resource for teachers, psychologists and others wishing to share and cultivate human values of compassion, kindness, tolerance and forgiveness in communities throughout Ukraine.

The participants of the meeting in July came from diverse backgrounds and regions from all over Ukraine – east, west, north and south, including representatives from the occupied territory in the east. This inevitably meant that diverse and contrasting views about the situation in Ukraine and the conflict since 2014 were present.

Through trust in the process built up over 2 years of work already conducted, respect for each other and conflict resolution techniques such as listening skills and repeating back to each other what had been said, the group managed to work through tensions that arose and unite towards achieving the common task of creating a Power of Goodness training manual for Ukraine. The next meeting will take place in Odessa from 27th to 29th October.