Last week, “Shchedryk” participated in a webinar on “Livestock Restoration in Rural Communities of Southern Ukraine,” which gathered over 400 participants from the southern regions. The webinar focused on the program participants’ achievements, addressing challenges they faced and ways to overcome them.
Project coordinator and co-founder of the Shchedryk Foundation, Oleksandr Mosin, stated that the foundation is making maximum efforts to help those affected by the aggression of the Russian Federation to rebuild their lives and provide for themselves and their families.
“We are very grateful to the Interregional Association of Birdwatchers and Feed Producers of Ukraine for implementing such a great project. In the Mykolaiv region alone, we reached 620 families, totaling 14,880 chicken heads that people were able to raise. The main value of this project is that people received not only starter kits but, above all, knowledge that will help them sustain their families, not only with poultry meat but also by earning income and creating their own businesses,” emphasized Oleksandr Mosin.
According to Vadim Shyian, the head of the public association of the interregional union of birdwatchers and feed producers of Ukraine, the program organizers hope to extend cooperation to other regions in southern Ukraine next year, beyond the 620 families involved in the Mykolaiv region.
“Residents of communities and regions received ‘educational kits,’ including chicks, feed, feed additives, and veterinary drugs. We taught you, supported you until the moment you slaughtered the birds and began consuming or selling them. This project has also attracted other international donors who want to initiate this program in other affected regions throughout the south of Ukraine,” he said.
During the webinar, one of the challenges discussed was the search for quality feed in the market. Attention was also drawn to the importance of cooperation and clustering in the agro-sector, using the experience of European countries as a foundation. This approach facilitates resource optimization, the creation of an integrated production chain, and cost reduction.