Success stories

New entrepreneur:
Liudmyla Nikitina (Ukraine)
Age: 27
Company name: (Start-up)
Sector of activity: Community, social and personal services

Host entrepreneur:
Carlos Ferreira (Portugal)
Age: 31
Company name: Geoclub / www.geoclube.eu (11 years of experience)
Sector of activity: Community, social and personal services

While applying, Liudmyla was interested in two areas: consulting youth organizations and social enterprises and activities of youth organizations. She had experience in the implementation and financial management of her own youth initiatives so she was looking for an opportunity to gain practical international management experience in order to bring the activities of her own organization to a higher level. Therefore, when it came time to decide on the host organization she chose Mr Carlos Blanca and the Geoclube. This organization has been working for more than 20 years and has tremendous experience in implementing large-scale youth projects. Carlos’s main motivation was to have the opportunity to work with open-minded person that likes challenges and thinks "outside the box". When he first met Liudmyla he saw her enthusiasm and realised that their exchange would be highly productive.

During the exchange Liudmyla worked not only with Carlos but with the entire team of the organisation getting many insides on youth work. Every week new opportunities were coming her way. During the exchange Liudmyla visited a career orientation exhibition in Porto (Qualifica) and participated in a training course on writing solidarity projects "European Union: Solidarity prevails". Together with Carlos they prepared lectures for students and schoolchildren of Porto educational institutions. They also conducted a training on creative and cultural entrepreneurship within the project. Carlos worked with Liudmyla on her organisation development and together they writing articles on various topics. Under Carlos guidance Liudmyla put herself in new shoes and participated in applications for Erasmus+ writing process.

The main takeaway for Liudmyla of this exchange was working in a multicultural team – being open, tolerant and accepting constructive criticism. Both Liudmyla and Carlos could compare how NGOs function in other countries. They found partner organisations for common work on the EU projects in the fields of ecology youth exchanges and entrepreneurship. Liudmyla helped Carlos to change their communication strategy and developed new one for her project. In 3 months she went through all the business processes and realised how she can adapt gained experience in her NGO. Returning to Ukraine Liudmyla reviewed the activities of her organization and focused on the work and support of young people in these difficult times. She held a strategic meeting with the team where they determined new activities held a brainstorm and now they plan to attract resources for future projects implementation.

For more information, please contact the local contact points involved in the exchange:

New entrepreneur's contact point:
LLC "CIVITTA UKRAINE" (Kyiv, Ukraine)

Host entrepreneur's contact point:
ESLIDER PORTUGAL, ASSOCIACAO (Porto, Portugal)

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