INNA SANDIUK

Inna Sandiuk is the co-founder of a startup company providing online courses of English for entrepreneurs and IT specialists in Ukraine. Having some experience in journalism, she is passionate about interviewing people. Inna served as a Ukrainian youth delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 and was a fellow to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. During her mandates, she managed to deliver two statements at the UN premises regarding issues related to social and humanitarian affairs, and human rights.

"A Better World Is Shaped by People with Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds"

Q: Tell us a few things about your country, and also your life's story!

I lived in 5 different countries as a student and as a young professional. In all those places I felt I would move there for good. I liked it everywhere so I was wondering where my home actually was. I remember vividly a day in our comfy and fancy Hewlett-Packard office in Wroclaw where I was working for quite some time. I was busy with my tasks having second thoughts on whether I was doing the right thing in the right place. I then moved back to Ukraine and it has been 5 so far that I have been living here. What I know for sure now, my home is Ukraine, absolutely positive about that. Working as an educator I see my international experiences as an indispensable tool to help young people develop their core soft skills much faster.

Territory-wise Ukraine is the biggest country in Europe. However, opportunities-wise we have even bigger prospects for entrepreneurship, creative industries, R&D, IT, consulting, agriculture and trade, and many more. From my standpoint our core strength is talented, committed, and self-disciplined people who are good in a crisis, ready to put their best foot forward and take responsibility to bring about change.

The Revolution of Dignity (2013-2014) changed our mindset and sharpened our values. Even though we are still struggling with economic, political, social turmoil, much has been done and one can see tangible results. For example, the e-procurement system ProZorro helped save $2bn of taxpayers' money nationwide. Decentralization reform, on the other hand, has enabled local governments to get funding for the needful projects in a more efficient way. From a cultural perspective, we are rediscovering the Ukrainian film industry, established Ukrainian cultural foundation that helps promote arts, literature, tourism, innovative cultural products. 

Despite all the achievements and efforts put by governments, diplomats, civil society, youth, or international donors, we entered the seventh year of the Russian Federation violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, breaking the international law and the UN resolutions. Therefore, national and international security should predominantly stay high on the agenda in Ukraine and beyond.

Q: What is your view of the Coronavirus crisis and the world as it is today? How do you define the concept of a better world especially given the hard lessons we have taken from this unprecedented crisis?

Right before the Coronavirus lockdown started, I watched the BBC series "Years and Years". I am not going to give away the whole plot of it, but what immensely stroke me was the question: "What if our lives were changed dramatically due to some sudden event that would affect all spheres of lives? What profession, skills, and competencies should one have to be afloat when it seems that your service would be no longer needed? For example, if you are a dentist, a lawyer, a tour guide, a baker, a designer, a trainer, a web developer, or a shop assistant, - what if nobody was ready to pay for your craft?"

I was talking to my family, friends, and colleagues to find some answers. Most of them shared the opinion that if you are a real professional with a solid background, that should never be a problem. Since coronavirus hit the world, many faced this same issue, challenged by being unemployed, filled with anxiety, in a dire need find the ways to work online if possible. That changed our lives fundamentally and proved the world to be tremendously fragile. 

I think that despite all the tragic losses caused by COVID-19 worldwide, we learned a lesson of solidarity - #stayhome for saving somebody else’s life being at the frontline of the Corona-battle.

I do believe that a better world is shaped by people with good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. Redesigning and restructuring lifestyles does not sound that terrifying if you rethink the value of life itself and start cherishing what you have and what you can create. I do believe that when the crisis is over, social distancing would turn into much closer, stronger, proactive, supportive, and conscious communities so that we can enjoy better days to the fullest.

Q: What are some of the key challenges in your society currently and how do you think CoVid-19 will affect your country?

The biggest problem, for now, is COVID-19 itself as it affected the labour market to a great extent. On May 13 the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmygal mentioned that 197,000 people – up to 486,000 people nationwide are unemployed due to COVID-19. If not unemployed, many have been asked to go for unpaid leave which cut them off their income. With the ease of quarantine since May 11 beauty salons, summer terraces of cafes and restaurants, shopping malls, dentists, etc. have opened, albeit many entrepreneurs still cannot operate, since providing their services online is technically not an option. 

Whenever there is no immediate action from the state authorities, life-saving projects arose along the way tackling social issues at the spot. For example, “Order food for Grandma and Grandpa” was initiated by businesses supported then by mayors and municipal social services. It implied that senior citizens as the most vulnerable society members would be supplied with the minimum required food kit with no need for them to leave their homes. Over 42k senior people were assisted thanks to such a collaborative effort. I think we will get back to our normal lives faster if we take good care of each other in multiple ways: starting with sticking to the rules (like “stay at home”) ranging to giving a hand to those who need it the most now.

Q: As a young individual what are a few of the hurdles that you had to overcome up until today?

I belong to a type of people who occasionally question their skills, competences, and knowledge. I have always wanted to come up with some great idea that would change people’s lives. In such a way I thought I would pay forward to what I was gifted with: a great family, brilliant teachers, outstanding peers, challenging milestones that helped me shape my personality. My assumption was that I needed to have excellent skills in multiple areas such as education, digital marketing, sales, public speaking, youth politics, civil society development. Later on, I draw a conclusion that I could only be good at a few things at a time, otherwise, it results in losing focus. I got a lot of inspiration from Ukrainian tech companies that disrupted the market: Petcube, Grammarly, Preply, and many more. I was wondering if I would ever be in a position to build similar companies. Those types of questions can be hard to sustain as one does not fully understand his or her own path in life.

Recently, I stumbled into a TED Talk on happiness by Emily Esfahani Smith. According to her, every person should realize his/her meaning in life and that should help people lead a happier life. So, whenever you define your own path, you should clearly be more self-aware and have no need to follow some particular career or personal development patterns.

As I was watching her talk, Emily mentioned two of the pillars of meaning – belonging and purpose. From my standpoint, every young individual should take his/her time to think about these fundamental questions. Where do you belong? What is your purpose in life?

I still believe my great project idea is coming up. The thing is now I better understand what, why, where, with whom I should make it happen.

Q: Why is the role of a mentor important for you?

You can be a super-intelligent, seasoned expert with many talents but having a career and personal development adviser gives you this helicopter view that would not be possible to check otherwise. More than that a mentor may ask you just one question that would change your mindset drastically. For example, "Why would you target so small?" This is a game-changer from my standpoint.

Q: Do you have a lesson that life has taught you and you would like to share?

I think many may relate to the fact that somehow we tend to underestimate and underrate ourselves. For quite some time I was dependant on what my peers, my supervisors or management would think about my project ideas, approaches, or creativity. When they approved it all, or when some stranger would say: "Wow, you achieved a lot!" I would think and more importantly say: "I don't really think so". Thus, it took me a while to rethink why it happens so. Later on, I tried to shift the paradigm and felt so much relieved. I think it is crucial for people to understand who they are and what milestones brought them to where they are, rather than look for some appreciation in other people's eyes.

Q: Name a project, a foundation or a person in your country that you think is doing great work in helping improve other people's lives!

From my perspective, Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Family Foundation is one of the crucial change-makers in Ukraine. Through the foundation's programs and projects, they empower young people to drive change in economic, political, social life in Ukraine. They foster innovation-driven projects on a local, regional, and national level. The foundation enables youth to learn best practices from 6 successful European countries in terms of political freedom, economic welfare, social justice, and symbiotic coexistence with the biosphere. 

In 2014 Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Family Foundation helped Ukrainian youth to be represented and heard at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The program "Ukrainian youth delegate to the United Nations" was supported by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine. The program fosters participation of youth in international politics.

Q: What are some of the challenges that women in your country face and what efforts are made towards gender equality?

The area where predominantly women constitute the majority of profession-wise is education. In the past couple of years, multiple programs were launched to help women gain and deepen entrepreneurial skills and get some funding for their business ideas. From the human rights perspective in 2017 Ukraine revised its legislation on preventing domestic violence. However, Istanbul Convention has not been ratified yet. 2 in 3 women have experienced psychological, physical, or sexual violence (as per report issued by OSCE, 2019).

According to UN Women, the number of calls related to reporting the domestic violence cases has increased by 30% since the quarantine started in Ukraine.

Q: Share with us a phrase, a poem or a story that you love or you find interesting!

Small steps make a big difference. Be bold to take your step forward and make your biggest dream happen.

Q: Share with us a project that you would like to make happen for your country or a cause that you are passionate about?

I am passionate about quality and innovation-driven education and my aspiration is to be a part of some moonshot idea that would be a game-changer in a short- and long-time perspective.