Our House in Baranivka is two years old! Congratulations everyone! Our baby is growing up and making you and us - its many parents, aunts and uncles, guardians and ninnies - happy! That is what happened in the past flourishing year in the life of the Baranivka House: April 2011: tidying up of the site and the garden, planting new trees, creating a Facebook page, successful negotiations with the local electricity supply office about installing three-phase electricity, financing for that is received from the Action for Life (www.afl.iofc.org) programme, may it live long and prosper! Workshop construction starts. May: A number of trainings on project management, management of volunteers, communication and community building takes place. Planting Baranivka's vegetable patch. Sergei Tretetsky leaves Baranivka as a permanent resident and becomes a member of the "support team". Organising 'Farmers Dialogue' event in Sorochintsy, timed to coincide with the visit of the Initiatives of Change-Lorraine (France) team. June: The summer volunteer programme begins. We start selling Souvenirs. Valentin Bondarenko is presented with a car, which we use for the project's needs. Our "pilgrimage" to the Caux conference centre begins (www.caux.ch). Katya Sviridova and Liosha Nelup move to Baranivka for the summer. Katya is busy with the volunteers and the garden, Liosha is responsible for the construction. There are LOADS of wild strawberries! July: The volunteer programme gathers pace. We cement the workshop floor, get rid of rubbish at "Grandma's House", move on with the sewers pipes, remove the clay from the attic, begin strengthening the foundations of the old house. A new outdoor shower is built. The vegetable patch is taken care of, stocks for the winter are made. August: The volunteer programme continues. Sheathing of the extension is completed. The roof over the old house is dismantled, wooden frames for the 2nd floor on top of the old house are built. We take part in the Sorochintsy Fair, where we teach people how to make handmade stuffed toys and toys out of grass. Katya Sviridova, having faithfully "served her duty" to Baranivka in the summer, moves to Kiev to continue her career as a sociologist. September: We extend the volunteer programme till October, receiving a total of 46 volunteers from 12 countries. The 3-phase electricity system is installed, a ​topographical survey of the site is made. The plinth wall is tiled with brick. The construction of wooden frames for the extension roof over the old house is complete.
October: The extension is roofed. A grant of £ 3,500 from the Irene Prestwitch Trust is received to install eco-friendly autonomous sewage system. Electricity is wired, a water heater is installed. November: Construction freezes until spring, the wooden frames are covered with vapour barrier. A meeting takes place to evaluate the work in 2011. December: The project's debt of UAH 12 000 is covered by joint efforts. For the winter time there are some movements within the team of permanent residents – some move out for the time being, some move in:) January 2012: Robert Werner from Germany moves to Baranivka, joining the team of permanent residents of the House. We are comfortably living through frosts down to -30, thanks to those blessed electric heaters. February: 2012 planning session takes place. Coordination group of the project is formed, the mission of the House is reviewed, the Baranivka House Statute is formed. March: Construction planning, preparation of the budget. Start of the fundraising campaign http://www.betterplace.org/en/organisations/baranivka . Liosha Nelup is in charge of coordinating construction this season, but there are still vacancies to fit every taste: http://www.baranivka.org/ rozshukuyutsya-2 / Plans for year 3 of the House: ·the sewage system installation in April ·the construction of the House completion by November 2012 ·interior finishing in the winter and spring of 2012-2013 ·landscape design by students of Poltava University from September 2012 to June 2013 ·team-building meeting of the "Foundations for Freedom" (www.f-4-f.org) community in Ukraine - May 2012 ·volunteer programme from May 25 till September 21 ·7-days residential training course by the organization "Foundations for Freedom" at the end of September. ·a conference for all volunteers of Baranivka at the last weekend of September and, naturally, making the world a better place:)))