Several thousand foreign tourists took advantage of the free services offered by volunteers of the Friendly Ukraine initiative during Euro-2012
Several thousand foreign tourists took advantage of the free services offered by volunteers of the Friendly Ukraine initiative during the Euro-2012 football championship. The initiative is supported by the International Renaissance Foundation.
According to preliminary figures, more than 1,000 Euro-2012 guests took advantage of free lodging offered by residents of host cities. In many cases the Ukrainian hosts also offered transfers and city tours.
Some 1,500 Ukrainians were ready to offer language support and wore Friendly Ukraine t-shirts or pins to show their participation in the Friendly Ukraine initiative.
Volunteers helped build a positive image of Ukraine, as most foreign media covering Euro-2012 reported on Friendly Ukraine.
“The Friendly Ukraine team would like to thank the International Renaissance Foundation for supporting our initiative. We hope that after Euro-2012 this issue will live on and develop based on the example of www.couchsurfing.org,” said initiative coordinator Viktoria Svitlova.
Friendly Ukraine was a non-political European integration initiative on the people-to-people level. Leading up to and during Euro-2012, Ukrainians used social networks to offer free assistance to tourists, including accommodation, airport transfers, tours, translation and informational services.
Friendly Ukraine sites
www.rooms4free.org.ua
www.2012well.com.ua
www.Icanhelpu.com.ua
Friendly Ukraine”
Viktoria Svitlova
+38 050 669 52 29
Dmitry Vasilyev
+38 050 330 39 08
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Main objective of the International Renaissance Foundation is to provide financial and operational assistance to the development of an open and democratic society in Ukraine by supporting key civic initiatives in this area.
