Non-governmental organization “This is Our Kyiv”

Громадська організація “Це наш Київ”

Project: Interactive Crowdfunding Platform “Clean Up”

Ukraine

About: NGO “This is Our Kyiv” was founded in 2013 by editorial board of “NashKiev.UA” aiming to create innovational instruments for development of active community in Kyiv. They believe that the most effective way of gathering people to solve any problem is to use digital solutions. The organization team aims to provide these solutions for communities to empower them. Among others they helped to launch a project “Dog Waste Stations” in partnership with local social entrepreneurs under its own brand “LoveGaw”. Later, organization has created the First Charity Trading Platform “Murahy” – a fundraising tool for charity funds and social projects that promoted sustainable consumption.

Challenge: Ukraine and Kyiv in particular are facing not one, but many challenges and all of them are rather crucial for general well-being and all of them need citizen’s attention. Among others there is no established dog-walking etiquette in Ukraine. Cleaning up after pets outside is not considered as a necessity. This way dog waste slowly decomposes on green zones of the city that often are situated near the children’s playground or even serve as one. One gram can contain 23 million of intestinal bacteria that cause diarrhea, intestinal disorders, and kidney problems*. In addition, dog waste pollutes storm water that through drains proceeds into rivers and seas without needed filtering.

Solution: The goal of the project was to promote proper dog-walking etiquette as a form of collective, responsibility-sharing activity for the community. They have provided the community with a web-platform that will include interactive map, tools for execution and actualization of citizen’s appeals, crowdfunding mechanisms and possibility of sponsorship. Thanks to the project we can observe an increase in quantity of Dog Waste Stations in dog-walking zones: there were 66 Dog Waste Stations before the project in Kyiv and there are 106 by now. This project raised awareness to the problem of proper dog-walking and ways to deal with it: during the implementation of the project 41 publications were released concerning SDGs , dog-walking etiquette. A culture of proper dog-walking will make city green zones clean, safe, and sustainable.

SDGs: 3, 6, 11, 12