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Alla VNUKOVA
Alla VNUKOVA
[ region ]
Donetsk
15 / 06 / 2018
Internally Displaced Person, Entrepreneur, head of company “Edelweiss”, Kramatorsk, Donetsk Region
[ topic ] Peace and Human Rights
Back in 2014 more than 1.8 million people have been forced to flee their homes due to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

15 Swiss experts play key roles in the OSCE to facilitate a diplomatic resolution to the conflict.
Peace, justice and strong institutions / 16
I left everything I owned back in Horlivka. Yet my sister and I decided not to stay down. We heard about this assistance programme and we worked on a business plan. We obtained a grant that has boosted our company much more than we hoped. My sister and I have been in business for a few months. We employ four people in the workshop and one in the shop in the city centre. Plus we have a delivery service. We see now many new opportunities for us to develop further.
Thanks to this company, I don’t see myself as a displaced person anymore. I am home.
Starting next year we may develop a new line of production – clothes designed for customers aged between 25 and 35 years old. I feel Edelweiss can expand and control some 30% of Ukraine’s market with regard to medical outfits and overalls. Our company’s name, Edelweiss, shows our ambition. It takes a lot of effort to reach the mountain tops and find this lovely flower. The feeling of satisfaction once we make it is unique. We truly have a lot of ideas for the future. And to be honest, I don’t think about these horrible war experiences we went through. I don’t even see myself as an IDP anymore. I am home.
Since 24th February 2022
I became an IDP for the second time in my life. We had to leave our home in Kramatorsk and to move first to Izium, which was soon occupied. We had no access to our storage so we could not take anything with us. Then we relocated to Cherkasy oblast. From here, we look for possibilities to have our equipment shipped to us from Kramatorsk, as well as our stocks. If they are still on the spot we left them at. I keep in contact with all my employees. No one gives up. Everyone is ready to restart. We are all confident - there is no other way. We start exploring new markets. We know we can sew large quantities of any clothes so we hope we can be useful for sewing military uniforms. We are up for hire.

There is a problem with the delivery of our working material nowadays (due to the lack of fuel and security restrictions). Yet we work on solving each issue, one after the other. We obtained a grant from USAID to purchase new equipment and to set up a new workshop in the Dnipro oblast. This will take about 3 months from now. If our Swiss-financed equipment is safe, we will have two production facilities in Ukraine. We are thankful for all the support we get and we should all work for the benefit of our country! 
Peace, justice and strong institutions / 16
after
24 feb 2022
What else is Switzerland doing for Ukraine?
Switzerland has been assisting those impacted through various means – from humanitarian aid, humanitarian demining and financial support to granting protection status S to individuals from Ukraine seeking refuge. By 15 February 2024, the Swiss federal government had spent a total of around 3 billion Swiss francs to support Ukrainian refugees in Switzerland and people in Ukraine.

In 2022, Switzerland organised the first Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano and launched the political process to help Ukraine rebuild. The Summit on Peace in Ukraine, held in Switzerland in 2024, set up a path towards a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. In the longer term, the Federal Council aims to allocate 1.5 billion Swiss francs to support Ukraine's recovery efforts by 2028.
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