Anniversary Opinion Festival: Highlights from the Day
The 10th Opinion Festival brought together nearly 300 people at KyivHall. Over the course of the day, participants joined eight discussions on matters that are especially important for Ukraine today: the return of civilian detainees, preserving the memory of those who lost their lives, the reintegration of veterans, housing for displaced people, maintaining contact with people in the temporarily occupied territories, adaptation, reconstruction, and justice.
An important part of the Festival was commemorating those who gave their lives for our freedom. The Alley of Glory was dedicated to employees and friends of East SOS who were killed. At the Wall of Remembrance created together with NGO Vshanui, everyone could leave the name of a person who lost their life during the russia-Ukraine war.
Three photo exhibitions were also presented at the Festival: documenting the history of the nine previous Opinion Festivals; Evacuation Chronicles; and Stories of People Helped by East SOS, featuring people who have received support from our team.
The Festival also continued the warm tradition of a charity fair. Thanks to handmade items created by Festival visitors, specialists from the Zatyshno Space network, the Foundation’s friends, and other supporters, more than UAH 50,000 was raised to purchase cardboard carriers for pets evacuated from frontline areas together with their owners. Festival guests also brought pet food, which the East SOS team will deliver to animals staying at transit centers.
The Festival is organized by East SOS as part of the EMPOWER project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) together with the European Union and carried out by GIZ Ukraine, with additional support from Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe, the Estonian organization MONDO, and with assistance from the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
East SOS bears sole responsibility for the content of this publication. The content does not necessarily reflect the views of the Festival’s partners and donors.
The Festival’s media partners: Eastern Variant (Skhidnyi Variant), Rubryka, Free Radio (Vilne Radio), Hromadske Radio, Nakypilo.Radio, Eastern Point (Tochka Skhodu), Tribun, and UA.News.
