Program "Club "Unizh""
"Unizh" is a hub of Ukrainian identity, a youth movement center, and a venue for festivals, as well as children’s and youth sports-patriotic camps.
Unizh is located on the slopes of the Dniester River, on the site of a former collective farm with remnants of agricultural structures. Here, volunteers have established a library, a sports hall, a cinema, a campus, a farm, a vegetable garden, and collaboratively maintain orchards and vineyards.
The mission of Unizh is to foster cultural and intellectual development among the younger generation. The center promotes volunteer activities, patriotism, and cultural enlightenment for the people of Ukraine. At the Unizh Forge, discussions are held, interest clubs are formed, music festivals, creative workshops, children’s camps, and various other Ukrainian projects are implemented.
Unizh is a small village on the border of the Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. Nestled in the picturesque Dniester Canyon, the project to create this one-of-a-kind location began in 2008, spearheaded by the "Nash Format" team and a community of like-minded individuals who share the values of the "Reformation." Visionaries such as Volodymyr Viatrovych, Yaryna Yasynovych, Ruslan Zabily, Vladyslav Kyrychenko, Oleksandr Polozhynskyi, Valeriy Chobotar, Andriy Kohut, and dozens of other civic activists gathered in Unizh as volunteers. Together, they transformed the remnants of dilapidated stables and elderberry thickets into a modern campus capable of hosting up to 200 people for camps, trainings, and seminars.
The cornerstone idea of "Kuznya," a name coined by Volodymyr Viatrovych, was to raise a generation of capable patriots who would transform Ukraine for the better through collaborative efforts between youth and thought leaders. A defining feature of the camps for youth organizations was mandatory volunteer work to develop the location. Days were spent volunteering, while evenings featured campfires and discussions with civic leaders, who had earlier shared in the physical labor of digging trenches and laying foundations.