Two Ukrainians. Two social activists. Two strangers separated by 500+ km. Then along came Paideia… Ninel Petrenko and Kseniia Nikishyna, both Paideia alumnae from Ukraine, met through Paideia and established a collaboration for a social project in wartime Ukraine. Here is Ninel’s story:
“In 2019, my Project Incubator mentor was Patrick Levy, and we are still in contact to this day. In 2023 he reached out to put me in contact with another Ukrainian participant he was mentoring at the time – Kseniia Nikishyna. We were able to meet in person at the 2024 Paideia Alumni Conference in Thessaloniki. Our similar circumstances really connected us, as we both work with humanitarian aid work for Jewish and non-Jewish communities in Ukraine. We continued our conversations afterward in Kyiv, where I told Kseniia that one of our sponsors, Restoring Vision, had donated over 400,000 pairs of eyeglasses to distribute to Ukrainians in need. I suggested to Kseniia that we could share them and together our foundations could distribute even more. Our communication was excellent and thanks to this cooperation, many, many people in need received these eyeglasses. We both hope this is just the start of our cooperation.
When I was preparing to attend the Paideia Alumni Conference 2025 in Stockholm, we realized this was an important story of successful collaboration that needed to be shared. Kseniia and I know that the important work we accomplished together was possible because of Project Incubator, because of the Alumni Conference, and because of Paideia.”
Ninel Petrenko [Project-Incubator 2021] – committed to helping vulnerable and neglected Jewish children across Ukraine by addressing their unique physical, mental and social needs. Ninel lives and works in Kyiv as Chief Operations & Financial Officer of LIFE CHANGER FSU.
Kseniia Nikishyna [Project-Incubator 2023] – Chief Operations Officer of “Charitable Fund Zaporizhzhia”, an initiative of the JCC Mazal Tov Zaporizhzhia. During the Incubator program, the nuclear station in Zaporizhzhia was threatened by Russian forces. Kseniia immediately mobilized Paideia participants, staff and their networks to support the emergency evacuation of 100 Jewish community members, including children with disabilities.
Photo: Shendl Copitman