DAAD East-West-Dialogue Programme 2022

The 24 February 2022, with the Russian aggression against Ukraine, changed our lives and our focus from one minute to the next. On that day, after our Ukrainian colleague, who was still with us on a DAAD scholarship from the previous year, had to rush home to his family, we turned our shock into action, contacted all partners and friends in Ukraine and asked about their needs, and in parallel activated our network in Eberswalde, in Germany, but also internationally, asking for donations and offers of support. In the following weeks, an online list of supporters grew and with it the Support Ukraine Initiative with almost 800 supporters who donated money, clothes, food, hygiene articles, ... helped with packing, lugged things back and forth, made bulk purchases, and then drove all the things to the Ukrainian border to meet with our great partners, who in turn sorted and redistributed the items throughout Ukraine. A big thank you here to the NGO ForestCom and their great work.

Local newspaper article 02.03.2022 (German)

The student excursion, which this time took place as a joint measure (measure 1 in week 1 and measure 2 in week 2), had to be moved completely to Romania. The first week took place in the Romanian Carpathians near Braşov, the second week focused on the Danube Delta and the biosphere reserve there on the border with Ukraine (and the biosphere reserve there). Mixed student groups worked out solutions to conflicts, especially in the field of natural resource management, on the basis of a joint situation analysis with partners and other local actors, and documented their impressions and results in the format of short social media posts (some of them public).

Research scholarships from Germany to Ukraine unfortunately had to be cancelled completely due to security considerations; instead, the three scholarships for Ukrainian colleagues were adapted and expanded. With the help of the scholarships, it was possible to financially support a Ukrainian colleague with his family for four months. In addition, two colleagues from the new partner university (National Transport University in Kyiv) and their families were supported for three months each. All three people have since been employed as project staff at the HNEE in other DAAD-funded projects. This clearly supports the intensification of cooperation between the universities.