Naftogaz announced winners of educational Development Energy Grant Competition with a Prize Pool of UAH 5 mln

Among the winners of Naftogaz Development Energy Grant Competition were 50 projects from 11 regions of Ukraine where the Company operates. Each of them will receive UAH 100,000 for implementation of development projects to improve life in the community. The competition of projects lasted from the end of January, and communities have to implement and present their projects until the end of October this year.

The aim of the competition was to provide communities with knowledge and skills that will help them develop and implement social projects not only within the competition, but also in their daily work. Representatives of communities obtained knowledge in the field of sustainable development, project management, fundraising, financial management, financial planning, etc. The winning projects are aimed at ensuring the quality of education, healthy lifestyle and the development of community infrastructure.

"We are not indifferent to the future of the communities where our Company operates. We work together side by side almost every day. We see how communities move, how they develop. We really want every hryvnia of local budgets, including our rent payments, to be spent efficiently. To implement effective and high-quality projects there is a need for constant improvement and learning. Therefore, we incorporated training modules into our competition. Our main goal is to teach communities effective local government, ” said Viacheslav Chaus, Deputy Director General of Land and Social Affairs of Ukrgazvydobuvannya JSC (Naftogaz).

Communities propose to create educational spaces, improve local health care system, establish sport facilities, solve the issue of homeless animals and the environment inherent to the community.

The Institute of Partnership and Sustainable Development acted as an educational partner of the competition. To form a grant application, community representatives were trained for 2 months (eight modules). Among others, they obtained knowledge on sustainable development, basics of project management, project creation and project budget management.

"I thank Naftogaz for such a powerful and large-scale educational project. The knowledge gained by the communities during the training will be passed on to the next teams and will become a tool for sustainable development of the community. I am glad that sustainable development has become a popular initiative. Because sustainable development is what we will leave to our descendants. Together we showed an example of teamwork and partnership. The state-owned company, the community and the business came together for a common goal. Sustainable development is a message we want to send through these projects. The communities have gained a lot of knowledge and skills to move on. This competition - is an example of strategic vision, " Daria Mustafina, a founder and a head of Institute of Partnership and Sustainable Development, an expert on project management and fundraising, said.

The development of the communities where Naftogaz enterprises operate is one of the priority tasks within Company's corporate social responsibility. Company's regional offices have regional development departments that are in depth aware of the problems and needs of each community.

"I thank all representatives of communities and local authorities that took an active part in the competition. I say thanks to everyone who put their effort to Development Energy Grant Competition. We continue to work within the framework of our corporate social responsibility. We will definitely consider and communicate with community representatives on projects not qualifying as winners today. I thank the participants and I wish you to accelerate the implementation of your projects. I hope that from tomorrow you will start implementing the necessary and valuable projects for your communities, "said Maria Kurua, Head of the Regional Development Department of Poltavagasvydobuvannya GPD.

This is not the first competition Naftogaz has held, thus the communities actively responded. At the first stage, 306 applications were received, of which 90 were initially selected and 50 winners have now been determined.

“I thank the coaches and mentors for their training and patience. The energy you gave us, enables us with an opportunity to go forward. I wish everyone not only to win this competition, but also to apply their knowledge in the future, "said a representative of the Novokalynivka City Community of Lviv region.

Recall that earlier Naftogaz held competition of ideas among schoolchildren "My Project For Community".