In this episode, I speak to Arsen Yatsenko, a long-time community organiser in Ukraine, and now a fifth year PhD candidate, with research focused on community and local NGOs (in Ukraine), at Poland's Wroclaw University. His journey offers remarkable insights into what it's like to step from relative isolation to engaging in your community, and how it can change your life. Informed by his research* and experiences, he also shares insights into how stronger communities have come to underpin the civil Ukrainian response to the Russian invasion, including the resistance in occupied Ukraine.

(*His PhD focus is on how Ukrainian communities have been affected by the war, and examines the reintegration of populations in the regained territories of Ukraine since 2014)

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Music from Uppbeat: Niafunké by Arnito