Opening a window of possibilities: USA experience of a Ukrainian fellow

By: Taras Repytskyi

Taras came to Allowance for Good from Ukraine as part of the US State Department's Professional Fellow Program. He spent 6 weeks as a fellow at Allowance for Good.


"Congratulations you have been chosen as a finalist of the Professional Fellows Program and you will be spending 6 weeks in the USA working at a NGO". A summary of the message I received on a cold winter day, which gave me even bigger goose bumps, as I knew that tremendous possibility awaits, which will broaden my horizon and open new opportunities.

Since quite a young age, I was convinced that traveling and understanding different attitudes of people is a very welcoming feature especially if you work for the sake of the community and development. I visited a lot of countries in Europe in order to see the approaches, interesting ideas and gather new knowledge, so I can build a greater society in my Ukraine.

Taras, Elizabeth, and Karin at the office on International Vyshyvanka Day.

Upon arriving here, in Washington and later Chicago and Evanston, my first feeling was, "I am in a movie." I was curious to explore each day and each second, as a lot of things indeed were different or at least as they are not usually done or made in Europe.

The first and major discovery to me was the community and civil society here. There is a huge amount of organizations and people who know a lot about charity and philanthropy and usually support different events by volunteering or donating money. It all starts with proper education and right attitude at early age throughout life. Through Allowance for Good, I was able to attend classes at Niles North High School, Northwestern University, and Loyola University to discover exciting curricula about civic engagement and community development. I made a few presentations on the political situation in Europe and Ukraine in particular. The high school students were really eager to get to know some of the aspects of social, educational, and political life there. To some of them it was a true revelation to learn about the situation in Crimea and war on the east of Ukraine.

I met bright people who are so willing to enhance their level of knowledge in these spheres. In Ukraine we seriously lack such programs and strategies for the society, and ideas written in my notebook will help me to make some of them real.

Another issue in Ukraine is that we have quite a different environment and recent history. People of Ukraine, because of living under a soviet regime which worshiped state or ruling party rather than people and communities, shaped the attitude of people towards common goals and better well-being. Now, after recent revolutions and uprisings of the nation, we can build upon that as we became much stronger, united, and passionate about social change.

My knowledge benefited a lot from the work with the incredible team of my host organization, Allowance for Good – Elizabeth, Aimee and Karin, who helped me to look upon issues of NGO work and youth programs from a different perspective and approach, which can definitely bring more results for the community. Job shadowing them was a real pleasure and I hope my fellowship will create new possibilities for them as well. For that, we started working on mutual grant proposals, so in the future our cooperation can grow stronger and our activities even more international. The first project is scheduled to be implemented this fall and will be concentrating on empowering youth from Lviv and Sykhiv districts with knowledge on social responsibility and community building. Kids will also have a chance to create and realize a social project of their interest, as well as a chance to work on identity building of their school.

My stay in the USA wouldn’t be the same if I wasn’t also lucky enough to be hosted by the Cernek family to explore the lifestyle of American households and daily life. There a lot of things about culture and cuisine I will be taking home with me, such as pancakes on weekends ☺

I would like to thank American Councils, WorldChicago, and especially Allowance for Good for an amazing opportunity to get a first-hand experience for future work I can bring to my community.

That’s would be all for now. I don’t say good-bye – I say welcome to new possibilities and Ukraine is awaiting each American to visit.

Beyond Money: Other Ways to Give

By: Andrew
Andrew is a participant in Allowance for Good's Fall 2015 Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy class in the Elmhurst location.

"I choose to be #UNselfie because... helping others is better for the whole world."

I am using what I have learned from this class in several ways. First, I have my Awareness Project. Some of my friends and I are donating not money or that much time. Instead, we are donating our knowledge. We had our other friends come up with games for the kids at Las Tías in Nicaragua. The game had to be fun enough so kids would stay to play it after school but educational enough because it is a school-like program. We came up with board games for 4-5 year olds and some for older. We also made them the best we could, not just scribbling. We decided to go with making games and lessons for Las Tías because of the "Tías" came to visit our class from Nicaragua. Her name was Grezelda and her story inspired us to help her out. We also know that a small contribution can make a big difference. If we help the future, they can help themselves. I'm not saying our contribution will change Nicaragua, but it could help change a community, which we thought was really cool. And that community can fend for itself and develop more and become something special. I also found it great how not every person needs 1,000 dollars. Would they appreciate that? Yes, but not as much as a personal connection to the donor. I'm not quite sure how to describe it but it is more satisfying from the donor of time or money and more helpful for the receiver. I'm also trying to get people to think about going on AfG's mission trip this summer in Quito, Ecuador. It is a great way to see beautiful landscapes and start your career, so to speak, in philanthropy.

We also talked about global development. As we know, there are many countries still finding their legs. I feel that donating time, money, or goods to someone who in turn, can help a community, a town, or just a neighborhood in a developing area is the best way to get involved in philanthropy. One way we learned how to do this is microfinance. Microfinance is like winning the lottery, you pit a little in and get a lot out. Except not just you benefits. A place anyone who may read this can do that is Kiva. There, you can put $25 in and help get a business started. As I mentioned before, that business can support many things and help a community grow. And then, the business owners pay you back. So you can circulate your $25 and help hundreds of people or take it out and get your $25 back. Pretty nice isn't it.

My Life Changing Moment on GEE

By: Analise
Analise was a youth traveler on Allowance for Good's 2015 Global Engagement Expedition to Bucerias, Mexico to visit Human Connections, a social enterprise designed to foster cross-cultural understanding and empower local entrepreneurs. 

Coming back from GEE, my view on my own daily life and the lives of the people I surround myself with has significantly changed. I now have a greater understanding of how much I have and how I can use all the blessings I received for better. There were several moments on the trip that caused this change, but there is one moment that stands out from the rest. On Friday, the fourth day of our trip, we visited Lomas del Valle and worked with Fundación ATD helping build the new school and playing with the little kids. After we finished playing with the kids I got to get a better look at the old school. It was astonishing to see this "school" with walls made out of wire and a roof made out of tin and then to think about my own school, Saint Ignatius.

As I walked next to one of the four outer walls of the school there was a list, as there are on many schools in Mexico. In the Mexican school system, the government sets up a school, but that is it. The children must pay for supplies, books, and repairs of their classrooms. As it is not uncommon for families to be unable to pay for all that is needed for school, each list schools' lists have the names of children who owe money to the school and how much they owe. I read the list outside of the school in Lomas del Valle and I added up the money that was owed by the ten names on the list. All together it was $435 and I thought for a low income community 435 U.S. dollars was a lot so it made sense to me. Then, it hit me. It wasn't U.S. dollars, it was in pesos. which meant it was only about $35 U.S. dollars. I knew right there that I had 3 times that amount of money sitting in my wallet on the bus.

I will forever remember that moment. It put my life in a whole new perspective I had never thought of before. I realized just how incredibly blessed I am to be born where I was, to have the family I have, to be the person I am, and to have so many opportunities in front of me that I must not waste.

Analise dancing with the kids at Entreamigos in San Pancho, Mexico.

List outside of the school in Lomas del Valle outlining how much each family owes.