Strengthening the environmental protection component in Heifer – Ukraine project communities became an objective of the newly-approved Strategic Plan for 2009-2013. In this respect, a number of activities are planned for the future year, including the following:

-           preparation of a questionnaire to help project participants in at least 10 project communities identify their local environmental problems and find ways of solving them;

-         creating a database of common environmental problems in rural areas and begin forming a set of tools to help solve these problems;

-         publishing a leaflet on typical rur1l environmental problems and easy-fix solutions to them, applicable to each geographic region (providing we secure external funding for this publication);

-         launching new projects with environmental component (again, depending on funding).

Examples of Heifer-Ukraine's projects with strong environmental component:

“Together Towards a Clean Pond”. This project - funded by the Matra KAP program and co-funded by Heifer-Ukraine – has a goal to improve the quality of a local pond in the village of Trostianets, which is heavily threatened by pollution, erosion, and low rate of refill. Activities were carried out within the framework of the project including designing a new water management regime, training for the local population, planting trees to reinforce the banks, cleaning the surrounding area, etc, which should significantly improve the situation.

Another project with a strong environmental component entitled “Improving the welfare and employment rate of ASC “Nadia” members through the growth and sale of organic produce” (#27-0828-02 Avdiivka phase 2)  started in 2009. The project launches a promising direction in Heifer’s work to support rural communities and improve the welfare of families – it promotes production and sales of organic produce, first of all vegetables, which is a very new idea for Ukraine and is generating a lot of interest from other communities.

High interest in organic production from our project communities has inspired Heifer-Ukraine to organize a hands-on training on vermiculture production for project representatives. The training was conducted in Lviv in 2009 with easy access to the Pomirchyi’s Boihumus farm in the village of Lupnyky (Lviv oblast). Participants learned key approaches in worm cultivation, including biological characteristics of artificially grown worms, principles of preparing vermicompost pits, effectiveness of vermicompost use in gardening, vegetable production, and greenhouses.

In our effort to help the environment and state our support for Heifer’s environmental initiatives Heifer-Ukraine staff has dedicated its time in April 2009 to clean an area of a popular public park in Kyiv. The park is one of the most beautiful places on the left-bank part of Kyiv and is a popular place for recreation, especially for weekend picnics and fishing. The setting was full of garbage, which, unfortunately, accumulated partly due to lack of garbage bins and municipal resources for regular daily cleaning and also the carelessness of the park visitors. Colleagues from the Lviv Office volunteered the same day at the Snopkivskyi City Park in Lviv. We found this experience very rewarding and we plan to organize similar events in our project communities in the future.