The initiative of making the First Regional Francophone Session of EYPUkraine didn’t appear spontaneously. Particularly in Kiev, the French culture is rather dispersed. Let’s remind the ‘Institut Français” which helps to learn French language and to enter to the French Universities and the French Embassy due to which we celebrate ‘French Spring” (Bojoulais Nouveau). Besides that, you can find some cozy French “boulangeries” on Kiev streets, The French Cinema evenings which is also an appreciated genre in the Capital. Remember Oleg Skrypka who has begun his career with Bono in France and is owns the biggest folk festival in Ukraine? Hence, all of that was used as a booster to organise the First Regional . Considering the fact, that the Parlement Europeen des Jeunes (EYP-France) is one of the very powerful ones in Europe and the most ancient one, this experience was crucial both for Ukrainian participants as the educative role and for frenchies as the discovery of the Capital cultural diversities. Regarding the topic, Europe is making and encouraging a lot of projects that with goal to make the “over-consuming” generation more conscious and responsible. France is actively searching alternative sources of energy giving preference to natural and inexhaustible ones– wind and sun.
I have asked two sides- Ukrainian and French ones to speak about the experience they had during the session: Lisa Skorobeschuk have kindly shared her organising experience with us, here is what she says: Any experience is priceless. The huge experience I have got at the 2nd Francophone Weekend in 2014 was just the appetizer, so I wanted to get the main meal - something bigger and more various than just weekend or just regionals. I went for more. Big dreams need believers to bring them into real life. After Alex Ustymenko has shown his strong desire to develop francophonie in Ukraine, we have started dreaming together and shaping our dream in the real project. Excitement - that is how I would describe the first stage of organisation of the project. As session was coming closer, real issues were appearing. The reality has faced us as a budget, as real HR work, as search of venues in such a big but not always friendly in than aspect Kyiv. On the other hand, while going through all of this we has achieved some both «serious» contacts communications as with French Embassy ones and new partner/ sponsorships. No doubts we have developed our soft and hard skills. Can you imagine how cool my CV will look if I fully described all the skills? A forced and intensive self-development happened too. Different - this word can describe the whole session. Francophone, 4-day, with Eurovillage, Euroconcert, City Tour and Party it has all shaped in not just a session but a conference of a huge scale.