What does motivate young people to stay in a town such as Pyriatyn? It’s all about the living conditions and the economic opportunities. Can you imagine that 10 years ago some 20% of the residents did not have running water at home? They were supplied by a water tanker. As for the waste, we used to pile it up in an open field and wait for the birds to eat it. This has changed.

The Support to Decentralization in Ukraine (DESPRO) project has helped us to develop genuine cooperation between local actors and active specialists in our Hromada. You will understand it is not easy to build a 17,000-strong community out of five different towns. Thanks to the projects, we have learned how to work together and to enhance our expertise. One of our last projects was to build the administrative service centre. You know, it used to be normal for our citizens to come to one of these gloomy buildings and wait in a dark corridor for something to happen. Civil servants were often bullying and they kept asking for more paperwork to be filled in. Now it’s all open, clean, bright and the queuing is electronically regulated. People now no longer have to face someone from the authorities telling them what to do. Instead they interact with a specialist who helps them to sort things out. You know, I was a building engineer and now officially a pensioner. But it’s my second term as city head and I just can’t get enough. The transformation that has taken place here these past few years has been thrilling!