Сraft it! is a cross-border Belarusian-Ukrainian project aimed at improving the living standards of local communities and preserving their cultural heritage.
Folk crafts are stylish, modern, unique and creative. Global trends show that the demand for handicrafts is increasing every year. We strive to make the world market accessible for Ukrainian and Belarusian masters.
Our philosophy is to boost the harmonious development of creative initiatives, preserve cultural heritage and show the ways of self-employment by these means. Our target audience is young people, beginner and professional craftsmen from the border regions of Ukraine and Belarus. Our goal is effective access to business channels for the sale of the local ethnic product on new markets (first of all, EU markets).
One of the main tasks of the project is to help folk craftsmen enter the international market while searching for customers and selling their products around the world. In addition, an educational hub is created where everyone interested will have an opportunity to learn and adopt the experience of specialists in the region’s traditional crafts.
In the course of the project implementation young people learn from the experienced masters, the beginners take part in various master classes and trainings, and folk craftsmen get the experts’ consultations on self-presentation on the world market as well as receive support in organizing the trips to sell their manufactured goods on various exhibitions and festivals.
We establish cooperation between the border regions of the two countries, implementing joint business and cultural initiatives in the field of folk crafts.
Implementation of this initiative became possible due to the grant received by Belarusian and Ukrainian partners under the EU funded Eastern PartnerhsipTerritorial Cooperation Programme Belarus – Ukraine. The program in the countries of the Eastern Partnership is administered by GIZ.