Berezhany Territorial Community

Since February 24, 2020, the Berezhany community has taken in about 5,000 forcibly displaced persons from the occupied territories and the war zone. About 2.5 thousand internally displaced persons stayed in the community for a longer period.

Also, a Volunteer Centre has been established under the Town Council to meet the needs of displaced persons. Along with it, the volunteer centres of other public organizations and the “Caritas-Berezhany” charity foundation function here.

24-hour duty was organized in the town council to ensure the reception, registration and resettlement of people fleeing the war. For a long time, a social canteen functioned where internally displaced persons received three meals a day at a discount. There is a social wardrobe, where people in difficult life circumstances can choose seasonal clothes.Cooperation has been established with various charitable foundations and organizations, including ADRA, People in Need, Red Cross, Posmishka. UA, Norwegian Refugee Council, UNICEF, Cash for refugees in Ukraine.

The community received support from the sister cities of Kluczbork and Lobez (Republic of Poland).

As part of the new cooperation, the Lobez Town Council and the Lobez House of Culture offered the Berezhany Town Council to organize recreation and rest for children from the Berezhany community on the territory of the Republic of Poland. Such a trip became possible due to the implementation of the Polish-German youth cooperation project named “New partnership with Ukraine in the face of war”. The people who were sheltered by the Berezhany community held an event as a sign of gratitude to the residents. Volodymyr Berezin, an eco-activist and the head of the Bakhmat organization, suggested holding a spring-time joint cleaning event around the Berezhany pond as a sign of gratitude to the Berezhany community for its hospitality. A lot of local volunteers and caring displaced persons joined in the event. To a certain extent, this event became an impetus for further communication between local residents and active displaced persons regarding the issues of community development and site improvement.Active guests of the Berezhany neighbourhood strive to be useful to the community and its residents – they began to organize themselves to write projects and implement various joint initiatives. This is how the public organization “Berezhany Creative Hub” was created.

In the Hub, you can get free legal advice and advice from experienced businessmen for entrepreneurs. The team also creates social projects and helps implement them. In particular, the Hub developed a landscape project for the arrangement of a children’s playground, together with the communal enterprise “Hospodar” and “Berezhany Agrotechnical Institute”. The organization “Bakhmat” carried out beautification works, planted thuja trees and landscaped the territory of Berezhany Lyceum No.2.At the initiative of the creative hub and with the support of the town council, an atelier school was opened in Berezhany for displaced persons and local residents

An administrative centre of the community, the town of Berezhany belongs to the oldest Ukrainian settlements. The first written mention of the town dates back to 1375. In 1530, Berezhany acquired the status of a town and was granted Magdeburg rights.

Throughout its history, Berezhany was a trade, craft, cultural, educational and administrative centre.

The development of Berezhany as a trade centre was facilitated by a convenient geographical position – one of the routes leading from western countries to the Black Sea region passed through the town. Merchants from the farthest corners of Ukraine, Poland, and Armenia gradually began to settle here. A significant percentage of the population of Berezhany was made up of Jews, who were mainly engaged in trade.

In 1554, the construction of the stone castle in Berezhany was completed, which was later strengthened and expanded in 1570 and in the first quarter of the 17th century. Unlike other fortresses, it was built not on a high, impregnable mountain, but in a deep swampy river valley – on an island formed by two branches of the Zolota Lypa River. In addition to these natural factors, the defence capability of the castle was ensured by deep moats filled with water and high ramparts.The revival of the Berezhany economy (caused by the reform of 1848) was facilitated by the construction of railways: a railway track connected Berezhany with Ternopil in 1894, a track leading to Rohatyn was laid at the beginning of the 20th century, and a track to Pidhayets was laid in 1909. The industrial profile of Berezhany at the beginning of the 20th century consisted of two brickyards, a brewery, a honey factory, three soda water factories, a tallow candle and soap factory, two mills (one with a cloth mill and a sawmill), a match factory and a sawmill. In Nova Hreblya next to Berezhany, there was a paper mill, which ranked Halychyna’s second in terms of the number of workers among related enterprises in 1909.

Despite the creation of some factories and plants, the population of the Berezhany neighbourhood mainly engaged in agriculture in the early 19th – late 20th century, just as the centuries before.

In August-September 1916, in the battles on Mount Lysonia near Berezhany, the USS Legion heroically held back the onslaught of the Russian army. The town suffered significant destruction.

In November 1918 – July 1919, it was the district centre of the ZUNR here. The Initial Command (General Staff) of the UHA was located in the Berezhany Castle. During 1919–1939, the town was under the rule of Poland and was the administrative centre of the rural commune of Berezhany. From September 1939 it was part of the Ukrainian SSR; later it turned into the district centre.

On May 13, 2015, Berezhany acquired the status of a town of regional significance.The Berezhany territorial community is very rich in churches, bell towers, castles, and palaces.

The development strategy of the Berezhany urban territorial community is at the stage of development: meetings of working groups were held, socio-economic and SWOT analyzes were conducted. Development of economy, rural areas and tourism have been defined as priority areas. 

Together with NGO ANTS – National Interests Advocacy Network, within the framework of the implementation of Project No.UKR096 “Strengthening Communities for Ukraine’s Victory and Revival” “Strengthening Public Trust” USAID/UCBI III, a Concept of reconstruction and sustainable economic development of the Berezhany urban territorial community was developed which provides a basis for the future Development Strategy.The main needs of the community, which must be realized during the period of martial law, are as follows:

• provision of uninterrupted power supply systems in the Berezhany central town hospital, educational institutions and communal enterprises of the community;
• improvement of the alerting system in the community;
• providing internally displaced persons with housing, food, hygiene products and promoting their integration into the community;
• purchase and installation of solid fuel boilers in healthcare and cultural institutions;
• improvement of conditions in community shelters

Post-war community needs include:

• construction and arrangement of sewage treatment facilities and completion of major repairs of Sichovykh Striltsiv Street;
• creation of the “Berezhany” industrial park;
• completion of work on the reception and diagnostic department of the communal non-profit enterprise “Berezhany Central Town Hospital of the Berezhany Town Council”
• development of the cooperative movement (dairy, horticulture, berry growing, beekeeping industries);
• completion of works “Construction of a Sports Complex on 8 I. Franka Street”;
• introduction of a comprehensive spatial development plan.

• Berezhany Town Council 
• Official Facebook page of the Berezhany Town Council 
• Wikipedia  
• Personal photos of Rostyslav Bortnyk, Oleksandr Nakonechny, Anna Biychuk.