ВІЛЬНО/VILNO

ВІЛЬНО/VILNO

Funding: Robert Bosch Stiftung
Partners: Robert Bosch Stiftung
Duration: September 2024 – present
Program curators: Bohdan Bunchak (at the launch stage), Alona Karavai
Project management: Yuliia Alenina, Yuliia Nepyk, Anastasiia Danylchenko
Contact: Vilno@insha-osvita.org

ВІЛЬНО/VILNO is an Insha Osvita program designed to support, recover, and adapt to civilian life veterans of the Russian-Ukrainian war who worked in the cultural and educational sectors prior to their service. The mission of ВІЛЬНО/VILNO is to assist veterans from these fields (artists, teachers, cultural managers, and heads of educational projects and organizations) in returning to their professions, while also creating a scalable reintegration model that can be applied to other professional groups.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, many artists, performers, writers, translators, teachers, and other representatives of creative and educational professions have joined the military. In August 2023, the Insha Osvita team began developing a program for colleagues from these sectors to facilitate their professional reintegration after their military service. We chose this focus because we have worked in art and education for over 15 years; as members of these communities ourselves, we possess a deeper understanding of their needs and provide access to professional opportunities in these fields. At the same time, we believe reintegration programs with a narrow professional focus should exist for other groups as well—therefore, from the outset, we approached ВІЛЬНО/VILNO as a scalable model that can and should be expanded and transferred to other sectors.

In June 2024, Bohdan Bunchak joined the program development. An artist and volunteer who was discharged from service following an injury, Bohdan gave the program its name and conducted preparatory research through a series of in-depth interviews with veterans.

Returning to civilian life, most veterans experience confusion, a lack of understanding from others, disorientation, and uncertainty regarding their qualifications and ability to adapt. While the state provides a system for medical recovery and one-time financial support for those discharged for health reasons, accessing this aid is highly bureaucratized, and veterans often face stigmatization from government officials. The NGO sector has launched programs for mental recovery, and reintegration strategies are currently being developed and discussed (notably by the Ministry of Veterans Affairs). However, there is still no systemic approach to reintegration or to the general adaptation of artistic and educational work to the realities of a (re)traumatized society.

Program milestones

Insha Osvita launched the ВІЛЬНО/VILNO pilot in 2024. Out of 55 applications received, 10 veterans were supported during the pilot round. In 2025, the program continued: on the anniversary of the full-scale invasion, an open call was launched for the second round of fellowships. The number of fellows doubled to 20 people, and the opportunities provided by the program expanded to include:

  • A monthly fellowship (the UAH equivalent of €600) for six months;
  • Legal and/or psychological support upon request, provided with partners;
  • Art therapy workshops;
  • A major networking meeting with fellows from the first round;
  • Micro-grants for personal projects (the UAH equivalent of up to €1,550).

Parallel to the new open call, we coordinated the participation of three first-round fellows—book curator and founder of the Zbirka bookstore Natalka Kuzmenko, playwright and writer Alina Sarnatska, and artist Bohdan Bunchak—in Cafe Kyiv 2025 in Berlin. This trip also included a meeting at the German Bundeswehr.

The second-round fellows represent diverse backgrounds: from visual and applied arts to cultural management and activism. In July, 13 of them received funding for their projects, including:

  • A memorial artbook for cultural scholar, editor, translator, and serviceman Yevhen Hulevych (project by Yuriy Vovkohon);
  • “Dronix” — an educational space where children and teenagers can learn to pilot UAVs (project by Viacheslav Lavrynenko);
  • “Perekhid” (Transition) — a sound therapy studio by Velemir Horyslavets;
  • “Fantasy, Mythology, and War” — a podcast by Andriy Kaspshyshak aimed at researching and popularizing Ukrainian mythology.

Since the launch of the pilot, there has been a clear demand for support from active-duty military personnel seeking to maintain their civilian identity and realize their potential outside the military. The third round of the program made this possible: applications were opened to both veterans and active-duty service members. In November, the names of the new fellows were announced; they will receive fellowships and the opportunity to implement their own projects.

The ВІЛЬНО/VILNO program is implemented with the support of the Robert Bosch Stiftung.

КОНТАКТИ