Over 5 days in the mountains, 18 participants from different parts of Ukraine began to implement the Mentorship Program from Zeleniy Val and Greenpeace Ukraine, in order to create new initiatives for the development of Ukraine’s environment
Last year, the Zelenyi Val team launched a pilot Mentorship Program for young people. Its goal was to give participants the opportunity to believe in their strengths and transform their own idea into a project, as well as to strengthen the environmental movement in Ukraine with new leaders.
In 2025, everything started with an Eco-Hackathon, which was held in the Zelenyi Val space in Kyiv. To support the teams, 6 mentors from local environmental initiatives were involved, who supported the participants during the implementation of their projects.
This year, the team decided to create a broader space for unity and provide young people with more knowledge and practical skills. That’s why, as part of the Mentorship Program, an Eco-Camp was organized in the Carpathians – in the friendly eco-settlement “Warm Mountain”.
The camp program combined blocks aimed at team building and idea generation, with an entertaining part – a hike, a campfire, and informal communication. The organizers sought to create a maximally relaxed camp atmosphere, and this idea was quickly picked up by the participants themselves: they conducted morning exercises, ran, had tea, and even held a workshop on upcycling.
The program also invited a graduate of last year’s Mentorship Program – Semen Verkhoglyadov, the founder of the NGO “Krokivnya”. He conducted trainings on how to work with stakeholders and shared his own experience of participating in the pilot Mentorship Program.
As a result of the camp, 8 youth teams from different cities of Ukraine were formed, which will implement their ideas over the next 3 months. The organizers are not yet ready to talk about what specific ideas the participants had, as they are still being refined, but they are all deeply and closely related to the preservation and restoration of Ukraine’s environment.
It is worth noting that this year the Zelenyi Val team received over 70 applications for participation in the program, from which they selected 18 of the most motivated participants. Some of them already had experience in project implementation, some even conducted events in Zelenyi Val, and for some, this will be their first experience.
Anastasia and Anna, who are in charge of Zelenyi Val, value the diversity of the community and are ready to support both grassroots initiatives and young leaders who want to change the world for the better and inspire people to be more environmentally friendly.
Participants shared that during the camp, they realized that they shouldn’t be afraid of difficulties, learned to be flexible, understood the importance of being able to work in a team, negotiate with each other, be empathetic, and also “keep the goal of the entire process in mind”.
This was the first camp organized by the Zelenyi Val team in 2 years of work. More about it, the Mentorship Program, participants, and their future eco-projects, the team will tell in social networks.
Author: Anastasia Kim, Manager of the youth community of Greenpeace Ukraine
