Interview of volunteers of the charitable organization “Support for Ukraine” on the TV channel “TV7+”
Volunteer, head of the charity organization “Support for Ukraine” Oleksandr Verbytskyi and volunteer Nadiya Bidun live on the regional television channel “TV7+ Khmelnytskyi Telekanal. Ukraine” answered important and topical questions about: volunteering, a charity conference to support the Armed Forces, low-noise generators for the 8th regiment, cybercriminals, courses for forced migrants, as well as many other questions.
Full information can be obtained by watching the video: https://www.youtube.com/
Oleksandr Verbytskyi, head of the “Support for Ukraine” charitable organization
1.Tell us more about the conference to support the Armed Forces?
Well, let me start by saying that the charity conference “Victory begins with each of us! Or how to be a resource during the war” was held on Saturday, July 9, at the “PARUS” business center. The initiators of which are the public organizations “Business Experience” and “Support for Ukraine”.
First of all, we needed to provide useful information that will help people how to psychologically and emotionally survive this situation in Ukraine.
I think that everyone now notices a little aggression, fatigue, excitement. Therefore, we invited specialists who are competent in psychology to this event. Let’s say, two speakers were invited on the topic of emotional upliftment.
The psychologist told how to survive emotional states now, how to cope with fear, anxiety, worries, stress during the war and how to preserve your health, how to overcome negative emotions caused by events in the country.
A rehabilitator, specialist in somatics showed how through various exercises, through your body, you can influence yourself, in order to be in a more resourceful state.
Since we were engaged in cyber warfare before the aggression and worked a lot on the cyber front, we also invited the deputy chief of the cyber police of Khmelnytskyi. He, in turn, told important information about how not to become a victim of fraud, how to protect your personal data and how to resist enemy attacks on the Internet.
2. How, in general, did people react to the speakers’ speeches?
There was a reaction. Everyone raised their hands and asked questions, which led to lively communication.
Many people confirmed the psychologist’s words about emotions and stress. As the speaker explained to us, the corresponding emotion (for example, fear) prepares our body for certain actions. If we are frightened, the body mobilizes to escape; if we are full of anger, then the body prepares to attack. Corresponding processes take place in the body in order to prepare us for actions in a specific situation. So, for example, you and I, sensing danger, quickly packed our suitcases and rushed to find a safe place.
Almost everyone confirmed the words of the speaker from the cyber police about the dangers in cyberspace. From which it became clear that the majority of people have encountered fraud on the Internet in their lives.
Our emotional state also depends on cyber security. If we read some news and immediately believe it, all the same stresses and worries arise from it. Only then do we begin to understand that this is not true, it is not real, because we still trust our armed forces, we trust the government. We need to learn to control what we read, to think and not trust immediately.
For this purpose, the cyber police work to detect, warn, destabilize and stop the embezzlement carried out in the information space by the enemy.
All these facts are one whole of our satisfactory emotional state. A simple conclusion suggests itself: a healthy lifestyle, good thoughts in the head, control of everything that surrounds us, of course, faith in the Armed Forces and faith in such a dream victory, and everything will be fine!
3. The question of how to cope with stress and anxiety during the war is something new. This is something that was not talked about at all and absolutely. How many people experience these feelings, maybe they themselves do not know what they are experiencing? Psychologists allow us to reveal these pains and experiences!
Yes of course. Our psychologist also talked about the main signs of stress. Here, for example, do you want to clean the apartment or have you already cleaned it for the third time. This is stress. In fact, there are many signs of stress and most people have confirmed them.
Everyone experiences stress. We all live under stress. But we often do not admit this to ourselves, we keep it all until the last, and tomorrow will pass. Unfortunately, we do not have this culture, if you feel bad morally, emotionally, then you need to find a solution.
Each of us subscribes to 100 Telegram channels, and reads information that finishes both morally and emotionally. Therefore, thanks to the advice and instructions of the speaker, people left the conference in a better emotional state than they were before. Everyone has found their own diagnoses and will know how to correct them in the future.
Nadiya Bidun, volunteer of the charity organization “Support for Ukraine”
4. What basic steps to overcome stress do you remember the most?
The first and main step is “Grounding”. That is, you must understand where you are now, in which resource, and what, above all, you need to do. The main requirement is to return to the mode of work that you had before the stressful situation.
The second step is to restore your relations with your relatives, with
friends, or make new acquaintances. Social life is quite an important factor.
The third step is a diet regime, a regime of sports activities, hobbies. You have to return everything to the way it was before, because your body is now under stress. Therefore, it should return to the resource and state it was in before.
Oleksandr Verbytskyi, head of the “Support for Ukraine” charitable organization
5. Let’s return to the main goal of this conference – low-noise generators. Have you raised enough funds? How did you know that you need them?
So, the main goal of the event was to raise funds for low-noise generators for the 8th special purpose regiment of the SSO.
We work with several military units. Charitable aid was repeatedly handed over. These include tool sets, a projector for our 140th special unit of the SSO, and more.
I personally turned to my friend and asked who is in the greatest need of charitable help right now. After all, we are organizing the event, and it will definitely be a collection for the Armed Forces, to which I received the answer that there is a need for generators.
I know exactly what tasks these guys are doing. These people on the front line are just great guys. I didn’t even have a doubt that this is exactly what we were going to collect.
We managed to collect twenty-five thousand hryvnias, which is enough for five generators. We have already ordered them from abroad, because we have almost none.
Nadiya Bidun, volunteer of the charity organization “Support for Ukraine”
6. Did you get feedback from people who attended the conference?
Actually yes! We received feedback immediately at the event itself. We had the opportunity to talk with people during a coffee break, where they shared their impressions with us.
Also, there were questionnaires in which feedback from the conference was filled out directly. The participants of the event wrote that it really helped them, because somewhere they thought about it, somewhere they accepted this situation for themselves, somewhere they remembered it. Accordingly, the support and information provided by our speakers will help them now and in the future.
People sincerely thanked for meaningful open discussion and for the opportunity to be a participant in this event. They expressed their admiration for lively communication in the matter of supporting the Ukrainian language and for the fact that they gave an understanding of the direction in which to move in the future!
Oleksandr Verbytskyi, head of the “Support for Ukraine” charitable organization
7. Have you thought about holding another such conference?
Yes, we don’t stop. I also have a running club “Race Expert Club”, which also participated in this event. Therefore, there are plans to hold a sports-themed conference for those people who train or want to start training. Proceeds will also be sent to the Armed Forces.
Nadiya Bidun, volunteer of the charity organization “Support for Ukraine”
8. Tell us more about the spectrum of work with displaced persons. What free courses do you provide and how many people have taken advantage of this opportunity?
With the beginning of a large-scale war, tens of thousands of displaced persons came to Khmelnytskyi. Everyone tried to help as much as they could. Our “Support for Ukraine” team did it differently. We decided to launch free courses in various fields of activity that will help in employment.
The problem is that people cannot find work because of lack of knowledge and skills. We approached this issue quite seriously. We have done extensive work on market analysis and identified the most relevant professions, that is, those that are needed right now and that can be learned within a few months.
In general, they successfully offered four free courses in different areas to the forced migrants: the “Computer literacy” course, the “Ukrainian language” course, the “Illustrator” and “Photoshop” design course, and the “SMM manager” course.
This project is successful, because as a result, about seventy-five people are currently studying at the courses.
We believe that the ultimate goal is to help internally displaced persons or residents of Khmelnytskyi who have lost their jobs to learn a new profession, to successfully employ a person and, of course, to help them start a new life!
