GoCamp: Oleksandr Slavskyi

If you speak English, you get access to dozens of opportunities every week, hundreds of interesting people and contacts, and thousands of articles with the most up-to-date knowledge. I don’t speak perfect English yet and I can’t use those opportunities to the fullest, yet I am doing my best to master it. It is a must for me! And, I am sure, not only for me.

If you speak English, you get access to dozens of opportunities every week, hundreds of interesting people and contacts, and thousands of articles with the most up-to-date knowledge. I don’t speak perfect English yet and I can’t use those opportunities to the fullest, yet I am doing my best to master it. It is a must for me! And, I am sure, not only for me. 

English is the key language in the contemporary world, obligatory for any Ukrainian. We – Impact Hub Odessa – have programs which offer study tours for activists, urbanists, and innovators to the European countries, providing them a chance to present their fundraising projects. It is a shame that it is the language barrier which so often becomes the biggest obstacle to the engagement of resources for the development of Ukrainian projects. Let us pool our efforts to change this situation! The ideas of Ukrainians are worth sharing.

Therefore, I decided to support GoCamp, since similar projects integrate Ukraine into the global community. It is worth starting from kids, as in 5-7 years they will be contributing to our country’s progress. The ability to learn life long, to be tolerant, and to adapt to match the world’s needs – these are the key skills to be mastered by the students. I am sure you will agree with me that to reach this goal one should learn English, which will open up the opportunities for development and self-fulfillment, and will – globally – make us part of the big world in terms of not only geography but also culture and global achievements and processes.

The GoCamp project is a school language camps involving international volunteers, who, together with English teachers, help children to learn foreign languages.

GoGamp is about opportunities which are opening for Ukrainian children (only this year 60 000 children), namely learning about cultures of various countries, developing skills, which cannot be taught at school – critical or global thinking, for instance. For many pupils, it will be their first meeting with a foreigner in their lives. In 2017, 600 volunteers are going to visit Ukraine, 80% of whom will go to small villages.

Volunteers will live with a host family of one of the pupils, which gives a special value to the project and opens the Ukrainian culture for foreigners in depth. As a result, foreigners ruin prejudice towards Ukraine, open it again and become the Ambassadors of our country in the world.

Project results in 2016:
- 120 volunteers from 40 countries;
- 127 schools GoCamps from 24 regions of Ukraine;
- 9 000 children.