Ivano-Frankivsk JSC: Cooperation with Italian Volunteers Continues

The Ivano-Frankivsk Journalists’ Solidarity Center (JSC) of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) was once again visited by volunteers from the Italian association Anteas Alessandria. During the meeting, they discussed the challenges that Ukrainian media professionals have to overcome today, especially in frontline regions. The editor-in-chief of the Holos-Inform newspaper and the online media Holos-Info Vitalii Chornenkyi shared his own experience of working during a full-scale war and how it is possible to remain in the profession in these difficult conditions and spoke about cooperation with the JSC.

During the meeting, the participants discussed a number of joint initiatives, in particular, regarding the project Partnership for Victory, and outlined further ways for its development.

“Ukrainian journalists need constant support. During the period since we have been cooperating within the framework of the Partnership for Victory project with the Italian association Anteas Alessandria, its volunteers have periodically provided various assistance – power banks and other office equipment, sports equipment, food – to IDP journalists living in the Ivano-Frankivsk Region, and media workers from the regions sponsored by the Center: Volyn, Rivne, Kherson and Chernihiv. I would like our Italian friends to continue to understand the needs of media workers, especially from frontline regions, and support them,” said Viktoriya Plakhta, the coordinator of the JSC. During their next visit to our city, the Italian partners brought a dozen power banks. The Ivano-Frankivsk JSC will later transfer them to Kherson and Chernihiv colleagues, who are desperately needed by local media workers for work in extremely difficult conditions in the frontline areas.

During the meeting with the volunteers, further free treatment of seriously ill Ukrainian children in pediatric clinics in Italy was also discussed.

Luciano Cartolano, the president of the volunteer association Anteas Alessandria from Alessandria, noted that he is well aware of the problems that Ukrainians, including journalists, are currently facing, so cooperation in terms of assistance and support will continue in the future.

Lidiya Vitranchyk, the secretary of the primary organization NUJU of King Danylo University, who speaks Italian well, contributed to meaningful and sincere communication with the Italian volunteers.

“Once again, I admire these people: their kind hearts, sincerity and tireless desire to help and do good. Thank you for your support of Ukraine, for your humanity and for the fact that even through distances and borders, good finds its way to those who need it. This is an example of true solidarity that knows no borders,” shared Lidiya Vitranchyk her impressions of the meeting with Italian partners.

REFERENCE INFORMATION: The Ivano-Frankivsk JSC, created at the initiative of the NUJU and supported by the International and European Federations of Journalists, as well as UNESCO, has been operating on the basis of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Union of Journalists since the beginning of April 2022. The main activity of the Center is aimed at providing assistance, primarily, to internally displaced media workers who have found temporary shelter in the Carpathian region, to journalists from the Ivano-Frankivsk Region who continue to work in their profession, as well as to colleagues from the sponsored regions of Ukraine: Rivne, Volyn, Kherson and Chernihiv Regions.

The JSC network is an initiative of the NUJU, implemented in cooperation with the International and European Federations of Journalists, UNESCO and with the support of the people of Japan. Our main goal is to help media professionals working in Ukraine during the war. The centers operate in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk. This project is part of UNESCO’s broader efforts to support the safety of journalists and freedom of speech in Ukraine.

Contact the Ivano-Frankivsk JSC at 066 677 0726 (Viktoriya Plakhta, the coordinator of the Ivano-Frankivsk JSC). The Center’s address is 25 Sichovykh Striltsiv Street.

Viktoriya Strilchuk