Today, Yuliia Yaroshenko is a lecturer and mentor who provides legal services and charitable support to veterans, internally displaced persons and women in collaboration with NGOs and charities.
At the beginning of 2024, Yuliia was emotionally drained: her legal practice and volunteering took a lot of energy. After moving from her native Dnipro to Kamianets-Podilskyi due to the war, she was seeking a new support network. So, when Yuliia learned about the camp at Bakota Hub, she decided that this was exactly what she needed — an opportunity to relax, recharge her batteries, and recover her inner balance.
The project was implemented by Terytoria NGO in Bakota Hub, a revitalised rural school in the Stara Ushytsia municipality that now serves as a modern youth space. The camps were made possible with the support of U-LEAD with Europe, which provided Bakota Hub with the necessary equipment and technical facilities to ensure the events ran smoothly.
“The main thing for us was that the participants, especially the veterans, got the support they really needed — rest, psychological help, and a chance to recharge. U-LEAD’s support allowed us to create comfortable conditions and hold a series of camps that transformed people’s lives,” says Alina Oliinyk, a Co-Founder of Bakota Hub.
At the camp, Yuliia Yaroshenko was struck by the informal communication, sincerity and sense of community: “I found myself in others and others in me. The camp gave me a friend, with whom we have been close for almost a year now, helping each other get through these difficult times.” Morning exercises, yoga and standup paddling in the Dniester River helped her feel the joy of movement, and evenings by the campfire with singing and playing guitar revealed the importance of communicating with like-minded people.
The most memorable part for Yuliia was veterans’ lectures. They shared their experience that helped them survive the hell of war.
“That meeting meant so much for me,” Yuliia recalls. “It is important for civilians to know how to navigate and survive in a difficult environment, and for the soldiers to feel that everything they did for Ukraine was not in vain. I learned firsthand about rehabilitation for veterans in civilian life, what difficulties they face and what support they need. After this event, I decided to be of help to them — through legal assistance.”
Once the camp was over, Yuliia stayed in touch with the organisers. This is how her new stage of cooperation as a mentor and lecturer began.
“I have always had an active outlook on life and wanted to be of service to society. I’m always on the lookout for like-minded people with similar values, because unity is our strength. I am inspired by those who create projects to support people and the country,” says Yuliia.
Following the camp, Yuliia suggested ideas for further cooperation to the organisers, which is how a new page in their cooperation began. Since then, Yuliia has been offering free consultations for veterans, and these meetings are life-changing. For instance, Yuliia helped one of the participants to legally deregister from the military enlistment register due to a childhood disability. She gave practical advice to a veteran who created his own product and helped him find a manager. This enabled the veteran to continue developing his business at a new level. “Sometimes five minutes of personal communication with a person and a sincere desire to help can bring great benefits, collaboration and growth,” says Yuliia.
In addition to working with Terytoria, Yuliia is involved in other support initiatives, including as a mentor for the “Dream and Achieve” as well as “Trajectory 2” programmes, helping internally displaced women, wives of soldiers and veterans launch or scale their own businesses. An important milestone for her was her participation in Women’s Entrepreneurship EXPO 2024, an international programme by UN Women where Yuliia represented Ukraine among businesswomen from 14 countries of Europe and Central Asia.
To date, in the first half of 2025, Terytoria has already held six camps for veterans under an adapted programme that factored in the feedback of the participants. A project launched with the support of U-LEAD with Europe is continuing to develop. In addition to psychological support, retreats and guided tours, veterans are being taught how to earn money after returning to civilian life and what opportunities are available in the region. To do this, they visit businesses where they can observe different careers and entrepreneurship up close, which inspires them to start their own businesses.
“We can already see that some camp participants are much better off compared to the last year. Once they had worked on themselves, visited other camps and implemented the practices they had learned, many of them improved their speaking skills, got more sociable and found it easier to connect with people. We see great progress in the people who were with us last year, and this inspires us to move forward,” shares Alina Oliinyk.
Meanwhile, Yuliia Yaroshenko endeavours to ensure that legal awareness and opportunities for development are accessible to everyone, including veterans, women, youth, people with disabilities and internally displaced persons. Through educational events, support for social initiatives and partnership projects, the lawyer strives to make human rights a daily practice in community life.
“I have a dream that everyone in Ukraine has access to quality legal assistance, legal awareness and opportunities for development. I am sincerely grateful to you for the wonderful opportunity to join the camp. This experience has been an important stage in my personal and professional growth that inspired further development,” sums up Yuliia Yaroshenko.
