‘Hmarochos’ creates a place for spreading and implementing progressive ideas and concepts of sustainable development, good government, open society, inclusiveness, and solidarity.
The NGO ‘Hmarochos’ was established in 2014. Since then, the NGO team has implemented dozens of urban development, environmental protection, media literacy, and media management projects as well as increased the capabilities of local communities and civil society organizations.
Our partners include Ukrainian and international funds, institutions, and public organizations, as well as embassies of foreign countries, including the Embassy of the Czech Republic and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Sweden.
We have extensive experience creating multimedia projects of any complexity, organizing events and educational camps, developing communication online tools, conducting sociological and analytical research, and implementing local community developing actions.
To communicate with the Fundraising Department of the Organization, please contact [email protected].
Key projects
2015. Kyiv Urban Fest
Together with partners, we first gathered local Kyiv activists and urbanists from other cities of Ukraine to the first Kyiv Urban Fest. It was a big two-day event in the revitalized industrial space in Kurenivka neighborhood, featuring several dozen speeches, an electric vehicles presentation, an urban documentary screening, and more. This is probably the first time in the history of the Kyiv urban movement that so many like-minded people were able to gather and get acquainted.
2016. Crowdfunding for the public space on Lybid river
Eighty-two thousand five hundred hryvnias were raised based on the Hmarochos media platform for the first stage of the public space on the shore of the Lybid River near Physical Street. Then, with the partner organization and the Architectural Bureau, we presented the initiative, announced an online fundraiser, and launched a media campaign.
2017. Sociological study on historical Podil district
In 2017, Hmarochos ordered extensive research on the Podil community in cooperation with CEDOS and Pact’s financial support. The study provides many interesting insights into how the community imagines itself and what the inhabitants of the most famous historical area of Kyiv think.
This study also had an unexpected effect. We asked Podil dwellers how they treated the pedestrianized Contract Square a month after concrete blocks blocked the area. We did not expect such success — 82% of the inhabitants were “for” making the Square a pedestrian-only zone. Later, the Kyiv urbanists and the local administration repeatedly used these data, showing the level of support of the locals for creating pedestrian zones.
2020. No-paywall monthly subscription
One month after the beginning of the first Covid lockdown, in April 2020, Hmarochos launches the first version of Voluntary Subscription, monthly contributions from loyal readers without a paywall and any other restrictions on reading content, modeling the system with the example of the British newspaper The Guardian. We started a monthly subscription service, one of the first in the Ukrainian market. Then we helped others to launch a similar system (consulted Sumy media outlet ‘Tsukr’ and with the support of the Lviv Media forum, created an identical model for subscriptions for Kropyvnytskyi media ‘Hrechka’).
2020. The Vision for Kyiv – A series of articles about the future of the Ukrainian capital prior to the mayor elections
For local elections, ‘Hmarochos’ prepares strategic articles collected under the conditional name “The Vision of Kyiv.” These articles collect and summarize in several basic categories the requests of the capital’s active community to the new deputies in the Kyiv Council and the mayor. This comprehensive vision is still relevant and can be based on any election program in the future to enlist the support of professional and activist communities in Kyiv.
2021. ‘Process’ Podcast
In 2021, two ‘Hmarochos’ co-founders, Yulia Saliy and Taras Kaidan, created a talk show called ‘Process’. They invited architects, environmentalists, and specialists in urban and transport politics to discuss key Kyiv problems.
2022. Media Project on the Environmental Consequences of War in Ukraine
The Project “Strengthening Advocacy of Environmental CSOs” contributed to the establishment of effective communication between environmental public organizations, media, and authorities. The implementation of the project was joined by the NGO “Ecodia” as a partner. Experts of the organization participated in the creation of materials. The result was the publication of five deep analytical articles about damage to the environment caused by war, with local examples, comments, and possible solutions. Based on these publications, a summary feature article was created – “Destroyed Ukraine: the consequences of war for our cities, nature and agriculture.” In addition, a practical communications directory for environmental CSOs has been developed and spread, particularly among climate network organizations. The total coverage of the project was 235,000.
2023. How to check information?
Multimedia Partnership Project for Front Communities
With the support of Isar-Yednannia, the NGO “Hmarochos” team implemented a nine-month project, “Verified information for de-occupied territories”. The project took place in partnership with NGO “ABO – the agency of media growth”, successfully attracting eight local media outlets. A media literacy course with local cases and examples from the local territories has been developed and implemented. During the project, 266 materials were published, which covered 307,500 users, which helped to increase demand for quality information.
2023. Viber Media Literacy Chat Bot and a series of explanatory videos
In the summer and autumn of 2023, with the support of Internews, the team of the NGO Hmarochos implemented the project “Comprehensive interactive learning on media literacy: video, quizzes, chatbot,” which aimed at developing the audience’s skills of critical perception of information.
2024. A series of explanatory videos about less famous pages of the history of Kyiv and Ukraine
At the beginning of 2024, we continued to cooperate with Internews on the new project ‘The struggle for Ukrainian identity’, which aimed to strengthen Ukrainians’ critical thinking on cultural and historical narratives. This project’s total coverage exceeded 1.3 million users.
The special achievement was updating and disseminating chatbots from media literacy, which Viber recognized as relevant for the Ukrainian audience and posted on the application’s main page. Currently, about 50,000 active users have used it.
2024. Multimedia project on preserving the architecture of modernism of southern Ukraine
With the support of Pact Inc., we implemented the “Conservation of Monuments of Southern Ukraine: Research, Advocacy and Media Support” project. The project aims to raise awareness and strengthen the unity of local communities and a wide audience in the Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Odessa regions about the need to preserve Ukrainian architectural monuments of modernism.
The project includes research, article publication, and video production about 10 iconic architectural objects. Its total coverage was over 1 million users. Also, we developed and published a road map for aspiring activists, “How to register a monument?”.
‘Hmarochos’ is an NGO registered in Ukraine. According to its charter, the NGO is engaged in increasing Kyivans’ and Ukrainians’ awareness of urban development problems and improving the quality of urban environments by informing and involving citizens.
Certificate of registration of public association №1423377 of 29.09.2014, decision on entry in the Register of non-profit institutions and organizations №191 of 01.12.2014
