On October 4th, in Kyiv, the War Childhood Museum’s team held a meeting with Ukraine’s First Deputy Foreign Minister, Emine Dzhaparova. Present at the meeting were the Founder and Director General of WCM, Jasminko Halilovic, WCM’s Ukraine Director, Svitlana Osipchuk, along with members of WCM’s Ukraine team, Oleksandra Dmytrenko and Renata Chechel.
First Deputy Foreign Minister Dzhaparova expressed her support for WCM’s work and stressed the significance of initiatives that document children’s experiences. The WCM team provided a brief overview of their current activities in Ukraine and internationally, as well as their future plans, including the establishment of a permanent museum in Kyiv.
Osipchuk discussed WCM’s ongoing efforts to document the experiences of children affected by the ongoing war, highlighting that the WCM archive contains over 260 testimonies from various regions of the country, including stories and testimonies from occupied territories like Crimea. She emphasized that one of their primary goals for the future is to expand WCM’s collection, with a particular focus on specific areas and communities.
Halilovic touched upon WCM’s current and future activities beyond Ukraine, but also outlined WCM’s plans to establish a permanent museum in Kyiv. He emphasized the organization’s unwavering commitment to their work in Ukraine and their preparedness to significantly expand these efforts in the near future.
The meeting concluded with a discussion of potential collaboration opportunities between the Ministry and WCM. Both sides agreed that the documentation of children’s experiences and the inclusion of their voices in the public sphere are of paramount importance.
