Before lockdown, ACET Ukraine was already active on social media, using it to educate and consult with young people, and to tackle online issues such as suicide forums.
When lockdown began and they were no longer able to visit schools and colleges to conduct their University of Healthy Youth sessions, or run their youth clubs in person, the team stepped up their online activity.
The number of consultations with teenagers has increased and online campaigns have been conducted to complement the University of Healthy Youth sessions. Video lessons have formed part of this, on topics such as sexting, cyberbullying, online dating and e-safety.
As every one of the 23 youth clubs run by ACET Ukraine volunteers has an Instagram page, the club leaders have been able to use these to run online meetings with club members.
ACET Ukraine have also started filming and promoting ‘Why am I an ACET volunteer?’ videos, in which volunteers talk about why they are involved with ACET and how the work transforms young people’s lives. This helps raise the profile of ACET and its values, and inspire new volunteers to join the movement.
The leadership team have also run 3 online webinars for volunteers and leaders across the 18 regions covered by ACET Ukraine. These have been well attended: 277 volunteers took part in the ‘Vision of the Future’ webinar in April, where topics covered included implementation of work during COVID-19, HIV prevention, ARVs and PrEP, teenage pregnancy, teenage addiction, and cyberbullying.
"I am so glad that I was able to be with and see everyone. It is so important in this difficult time. We are one team and we will overcome all difficulties together." Julia, from Talnoe