Peace Corps Originated Camp Withstands the Test of Time and is Set To Celebrate 10 Year Anniversary.
Written by Sara Sherman, PCV Ukraine Group 51
In 2009, a Peace Corps Volunteer and an 18-year-old Ukrainian student put their heads together and created a project that would evolve into a fully functional, community-focused NGO completely run by Ukrainian staff and youth.
Now, after battling the struggle of survival after the full Peace Corps evacuation in 2014, Cactus is set to celebrate their 10th Anniversary Cactus Forum on July 28 for all the staff, students and alumni of previous Cactus events!
Cactus, Community Action Ukrainian Style, is a three-part, non-profit NGO aimed at educating Ukrainian youth about civic engagement and community activism held in Ternopil City, in Western Ukraine.
The creation of the community-focused camp, now called Cactus Forum, was co-founded by RPCV, Courtney Taylor and Ukrainian citizen, Illya Symonenko in 2009. The camp was set in place to provide educational opportunities to Ukrainian youth on topics of community activism and civil responsibility all in the summer-camp setting including entertaining activities, cultural events, picnics and elective classes.
Half of the staff of the original Cactus Camp (now called Forum) was Peace Corps Volunteers when the political unrest and societal shift of the Revolution of Dignity happened in 2014. All Peace Corps Volunteers were forced to evacuate, leaving Cactus to try to survive on their own. The project took on the ultimate test of sustainability as they struggled to stay afloat without their volunteer partners.
The staff of Ukrainian citizens came together to design training seminars called Practice Cactus, expand and enhance the Cactus Forum, and develop strategies to successfully implement the Cactus Forum projects that are created by the youth in their community.
For Cactus and their staff in 2015, it was a year of re-creation, developing new chapters of Cactus, eventually leading to the official declaration of Cactus as an NGO in 2016.
John DiGiacomo, a now RPCV from Group 48, the group directly following the Revolution of Dignity, was closely involved with the reformation of the camp starting in 2016.
As they worked to develop the new organizational sectors, John witnessed their determination in the face of a fear that they would not get enough funding for the Cactus Forum.
“One of the biggest organizational changes I saw was the way they, with such a short amount of time, managed to get a partnership with Morshinska Water on their own, which in turn ended up sponsoring the entirety of the Forum in 2017,” John DiGiacomo said.
Morshinska Water is widely distributed water brand in Ukraine valued at $507 million in 2017 according to an article by Kyiv Post.
In their founded year, the team of PCV’s and Ukrainian youth successfully started out the project with students coming in from 5 different regions and creating 5 different projects. In 2017 Cactus hosted student participants from 18 different regions and realized 43 different project ideas.
Director, Myroslava Savisko and the Cactus staff are hard at work in the preparation of the next Cactus Forum held on July 20 – 29th In Ternopil City.
