Plattform Dresden

Plattform Dresden e.V.

is an association founded in 2021. The focus of our activities is on social diversity, which has increased in the past decades has become, and the promotion:

• of German-Ukrainian relations.
• of tolerance and freedom of the press
• of art and culture
• equal rights for women and men
• education, national and professional training
• the culture of remembrance.

Since the majority of the association’s members come from Ukraine, we have to and want to urgently change the focus of our activities due to the war of aggression of
Russia against our homeland urgently changes. Against the background of the current dramatic scenes from Ukraine, we have, together with the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic
Catholic Personal Parish of St. Michel in Dresden, we have launched the initiative “Ukrainian Coordination Center Dresden”. The goal of this initiative is to organize and coordinate the extraordinarily high level of assistance in and around Dresden.

Our coordinators

Natalija Bock (Chairman of the Board) – Contact: natalija.bock@plattform-dresden.de

I have been living in Dresden in Germany for almost 27 years and am originally from Kyiv in Ukraine.

I have been providing voluntary humanitarian aid to Ukrainians for more than 30 years. In 2003 I took part in the Orange Revolution in Kyiv. In 2014 I cared for the wounded of the Euromaidan in Dresden.

The Russian full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine gave my life a new turn two years ago. Together with other activists, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic personal parish of St. Michel in Dresden and Platform Dresden e.V., I launched the “Ukrainian Coordination Center Dresden” initiative, which looks after the care, accommodation and work integration of Ukrainian refugees in our city. At the same time, I also organize humanitarian transports for invaded Ukraine.

In autumn 2022, I co-founded the Ukrainian House in Dresden, a place where Ukrainians can meet and exchange ideas with each other and with Dresden’s civil society. As chairwoman of the board, I would like to continue working to ensure that Germans and people of other nationalities are better informed about Ukraine, its people, its history and culture, but also about the war and the great difficulties associated with it. I hope that this house will be further developed into the centre of Ukrainian life and culture in Dresden. Anyone who supports democratic values ​​and condemns totalitarianism and the war of aggression against Ukraine is welcome in our house.
(in the middle of the photo)

 

Dr. Sebastian Ramisch-Paul (Vice Chairman of the Board) – Contact: sebastian.ramisch-paul@plattform-dresden.de

In 2022, given my powerlessness in the face of Ukraine and the total Russian invasion, I tried to support Ukraine with the skills and opportunities I had. AsI hold a PhD in Eastern European history, I have since been trying to convey my knowledge of the country and the Ukrainian population, culture and history to a predominantly German-speaking audience, as I believe that only by gaining a greater understanding of what is at stake can we maintain the continued great support in Germany for Ukraine’s concerns.

So I looked here in Dresden to see how I could help and I found out that the association Plattform Dresden e.V. is trying to set up a Ukrainian House as a meeting place and meeting space for Ukrainian asylum seekers and the Dresden city population.

As a member of the German Social Democratic Party, I tried to support this project with funding from the Dresden city council and have also been involved myself by organizing German-language events in the Ukrainian House since 2023.

In Dresden, especially with the Ukrainian House, we have created something that does not even exist in Berlin and that we should definitely try to preserve.

I would like to help with this as part of the new board. (on the right in the photo)

 

Mykhailo Sukhonosov (treasurer) – Contact: mykhailo.sukhonosov@plattform-dresden.de

I have been living in Dresden for ten years and work full-time in project management. Since spring 2022 I have been a member of Plattform Dresden e.V. and help on a voluntary basis with various projects and campaigns. My main tasks in the association so far have been obtaining licenses for Ukrainian films, coordinating with cinemas and managing the German-Ukrainian Stammtisch.

Nobody would have thought three years ago that Ukrainians would now be the largest foreign community in Dresden. We already offer them many different projects and activities for all age groups. These, especially the social projects, are very close to my heart because they inform, support and connect very different people that you would not otherwise meet in life. Intercultural exchange is also important to me, because in my opinion one of the important tasks of the association is to bring Ukrainian culture and current problems there closer to Germans and everyone else, to encourage discussions and to address difficult topics. But I also hope that we continue to be the place that many Ukrainians already call home, a place of encounter, fun and exchange, where everyone is welcome.

I very much hope that keywords such as democracy, freedom, tolerance, variety and diversity are not foreign words to any of us and that we can always live by them.
(left in the photo)