This year, the youth organization «Lastivka» celebrated its 5th anniversary, and there was something to celebrate: 9 branches and 6 Ukrainian holiday schools throughout Denmark. The story of the opening of the first Saturday school in Copenhagen was during an event told by one of the Ukrainians. After a church service, some Ukrainians talked about teaching children the Ukrainian language, culture and traditions. They wanted to open a school, but did not know how. Fortunately, Alina was among the present people and said, «I know how!» And started as the leader of the organization in 2012.
During the visit of the President of Ukraine, Alina Protsyk handed an appeal to Petro Poroshenko. 2017.
Alina Protsyk has been seen on Danish television during protest demonstrations against Russian aggression, been heard in the radio and could be met personally at a cultural festival in one of the Danish cities where funds were collected for children affected by ATO in Ukraine. Sometimes it seems that she is everywhere. Personally, she admits that she can not sit still but must be in motion and do something useful for humans. Once in a conversation, politics was mentioned, and Alina suddenly expressed her thoughts about joining politics, because it is at the local level that it is necessary to protect citizens' interests. The people promised to support, but have anyone taken these words seriously.
Volunteers and members of the «Ukrainian Youth Organization of Denmark Lastivka» on Culture Day-2700 in Brønshøj.
But Alina always knows what she wants. A year ago, the party chose her as a candidate and believed in the political recruit's ideas. Now Alina Protsyk goes to local elections in the capital for The Radical Left.
Alina, why this party? What three main points in the program or its values coincide with yours?
They care about the millieu, they have room for diversity, and want to break the negative social heritage.
The first school day at the Saturday school in Copenhagen, 2016.
When she came to Denmark as a teenager, she understood the most important thing: when you are a stranger in the country, you need to work more, especially the language is important. After learning it and learning to cycle, Alina quickly began to accelerate: she graduated from the technical high school, and then the university with a specialization as an ennovation engineer. Today she owns the companies «Alina» and «Inovast», an is a interpreter in Polish, Danish and Ukrainian, head of the organization «Lastivka» and candidate for municipal elections in Copenhagen Municipality. One of the points that Alina proposes is improving integration.
What are the first important steps, in your opinion, that must be done to achieve improvements and not only to the Ukrainians?
There is much to do here ... Now the biggest problem for Copenhagen is shooting, conflict between gangs, and children who are under the influence of criminals. It is dangerous for the inhabitants of the capital to go out on the street. The most important task now is to prevent gang crimes so young people do not get into it.
Recently, the number of children and young ones in Denmark has risen, but the number of teachers and coaches for leisure activities remains the same. Some children receive not enough attention from adults in the kindergarten and school, and after school one can not go to football because there is a lack of local clubs for young people. This problem exists in the areas of cities where the number of children has risen, and where mostly large families and low-income families live. It is necessary to solve this problem. Then there are good chances that the previously described recruitment of young people to gangs will fall away.
Alina had a dream in her childhood – about visiting Australia. The 15-year-old girl worked, studied, traveled with youth organizations and saved money for her dream. It was realized when she became 20 years old. Now – a new dream and a new far more complicated goal. Let's hope that the young woman has enough strength and makes it come true.
Translation by Joergen Deleuran