To heal better: how the EU helps Brest Regional Children's Hospital
Since November 2020, the Brest Regional Children's Hospital in Belarus no longer uses oxygen tanks – there is a modern oxygen station now. Moreover, the hospital has a new ambulance and five new ventilators.
When art is the key to vulnerable children
They come mostly from rural areas, and they are vulnerable children: they have slight intellectual disabilities, motion or neurological disorders, behavioural and emotional problems. They come from social-risk, or refugee families.
A childhood dream come true: 25 years later Yagut Akhmedova from Nakhchyvan starts painting again
Yagut Akhmedova, from the village of Zeynaddin in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, has a talent for drawing since childhood. When she was in school, it took her only four years instead of the usual six to complete a course in drawing, and she graduated with honours.
Business in a pandemic: how two young women in Shirak became entrepreneurs
Shirak region is considered to be the poorest in Armenia. It’s not easy to find a job here, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made the situation even worse. A number of businesses have closed, vacancies have all but disappeared, and finding a job has become almost impossible.
Anastasia’s story: how a mother of four turned her hobby into a job
Anastasia Agalakova is a craft artist and a mother of four. In 2014, her family moved from Ukraine’s occupied Donbass to Pavlograd. At the same time, Anastasia found that her attitude towards her old hobby – needlework – had changed. So she moved on to making jewellery, not only for her three…
Galina’s Facemasks – how a woman from an IDP Settlement made hundreds of facemasks for villages near the administrative border line
Seventy kilometers from Tbilisi, on the right side of the road in the village of Shavshvebi stands an IDP settlement - home to about 780 IDPs for 13 years since the August War. For those 13 years, an ethnic Ossetian woman from the Greater Liakhvi Gorge has been living here – she knows everybody in…
Elena and Vera’s pandemic: two women fighting to overcome difficulties
Elena and Vera are over 30 years old. They live in the countryside. Both have children, and the pandemic has not bypassed them. But the pandemic is not their only challenge and the women are not afraid. They have faced even greater difficulties in life, so, armed with patience and faith, they are…
Alyona Alyona: Why shouldn’t our music be popular abroad? People from all over Europe have voted for a Ukrainian song!
We’ve spoken with Ukrainian rapper Alyona Alyona, one of the eight winners of the EU’s Music Moves Europe Talent Awards. She tells us about why her songs address so many vital social issues and who inspires her.
‘We make 15,000 masks a day, and donate 5% to doctors’: the story of Nelva, a Belarusian clothing brand that’s not afraid of changes
Today, Nelva has 250 employees, 14 stores and thousands of fans in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Deputy Director Irina Rakhmanova recalls how the ambitions of a few students grew into a large-scale business. Her speech is filled with such passion and enthusiasm that it immediately becomes clear why…
Never give up: how an Azeri woman built a successful gourmet service from the ground up
Building a prosperous business from scratch is not an easy task. It requires diligence, patience and hard work – lots of hard work. "You just need to follow your dream,” says Afet Akhmadova, founder of Zira Natural & Gourmet.