Choose the best video stories about entrepreneurs from eastern Ukraine

March 10, 2021

Voting for the videos of the Big Stories of Small Businesses project has started.

Photo: UNDP in Ukraine

Big Stories of Small Businesses is a social campaign to promote entrepreneurship that is being conducted as part of the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme, with financial support from the European Union and the Danish and Japanese governments.

In its series of short videos, the campaign tells the stories of entrepreneurs from Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. Some of them are internally displaced persons who left their homes and started their own business from scratch: one launched a clothing brand, one opened a hub, and another established a museum. Yet others are processing garbage, developing tourism, treating water, repairing cars, and providing medical services to people. All of them have received grants to develop their businesses from the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme.

The videos about these entrepreneurs were made by young advertisers and film directors, with a view to inspiring other people to start their own business. They also have the aim of telling inspiring stories about how one can, in spite of difficulties, open one’s own business, create jobs, and develop one’s community.

“I often come across people who are afraid to start their own business,” says Natalya Rak, one of the winners of last year’s campaign to promote entrepreneurship. “But there is nothing to be afraid of, you just need to study the issue and bring it to life. And to be interested in your business and live it.”

The campaign is already in its fifth year. Over this time, dozens of entrepreneurs have been filmed and received support in promoting their businesses. Through the campaign, all of Ukraine has seen that eastern Ukraine has a lot of interesting people who can implement useful business projects.

The deadline for voting for 15 motivating stories on the Почати.Бізнес platform is 22 March 2021, 23:59.

You can cast one vote for each participant.

The subjects of the three winning videos will receive information support to promote their business.

Background information:

The UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme is being implemented by four UN agencies: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The programme is supported by 12 international partners: The European Union, the European Investment Bank, the Embassy of the United States to Ukraine, and the Danish, Canadian, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Polish, Swiss, Swedish, and Japanese governments.

Media representatives should contact:

Maksym Kytsyuk, communications, the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme, maksym.kytsiuk@undp.org or +380 63 576 1839