Новини
Father of fallen pilot in Vinnytsia Oblast fulfils his dream on New Year’s Eve and opens vet clinic with grant funding
20 december 2023
Mykola Bondarenko, the winner of the #VARTO Do Your Own — a project launched to support veteran businesses, from Lypovets in the Vinnytsia Oblast, built and opened a 24-hour veterinary clinic with an X-ray machine and ultrasound for animals in six months. He also bought a car to travel and provide medical care to livestock in the community. A veterinary clinic is urgently required for local animal owners and farmers because now they have to travel to vets in the Oblast centre to get treatment for their animals.
“I was very nervous about starting my business because the building where the veterinary clinic was set up was in a desperate condition. I started fixing the building and setting up the veterinary clinic and pharmacy in April of this year. Almost all the work was completed by the end of August. The name of the veterinary clinic is BMW — “Bolyt — My Wylikuemo”, which means “If it hurts, we will heal it”. The demand for my services as a veterinarian was so high that people started making appointments two months in advance,” says Mykola Bondarenko, founder of the veterinary clinic and winner of the #VARTO Do Your Own competition to support veteran businesses.
Mykola Bondarenko’s story is both deeply moving and inspiring.
Mykola Bondarenko worked in the local administration and was also the chief veterinarian at a local enterprise. But then came the full-scale war that took the life of his son Serhii, an MI-8 helicopter navigator, on 6 March 2022. The man was thrown into emotional turmoil, suffered a stroke, and had to quit his job.
Mykola Bondarenko says that it was the #VARTO Do Your Own competition to support veteran businesses that brought him back to life. After receiving the grant, he bought a building in Lypivka, where he opened a veterinary pharmacy and clinic.
Now, Mykola Bondarenko dreams of starting an animal shelter. There is no such facility in Lypivka or nearby communities, even though many cats and dogs are left alone or unattended. Next, Mykola Bondarenko wants to open a hotel for animals where people can temporarily leave their pets when they need to travel or go on holiday.
Watch Mykola Bondarenko’s story from a series of stories about the winners of the #VARTO Do Your Own competition to support veteran businesses at
“Reintegrating the military and their families into social life is an important task for both the country and big business. Opportunities to start their own business are precisely what can help them feel needed and strong at home. Supporting small businesses could become a key factor in the country’s economic recovery. Small and medium-sized enterprises create jobs, pay taxes to local budgets, and meet regional consumer demand, and this stimulates the cycle of money and contributes to the well-being of communities,” said Tetiana Volochai, Director of the MHP-Gromadi Charitable Foundation.
In early 2023, the MHP-Gromadi Charitable Foundation partnered with the Ukrainian Veterans Foundations managed by the Ministry of Veterans Affairs to organise the #VARTO Do Your Own competition. According to the terms of the competition, ten Ukrainians — veterans and their families, as well as the families of the fallen servicemen and servicewomen — were awarded between UAH 500,000 and UAH 1.5 million to develop their businesses.
“Since 2022, the Ukrainian Veterans Foundation has awarded UAH 163.8 million to 440 businesses to support their development. Mykola’s veterinary pharmacy became one of these businesses. We are confident that it will benefit the residents of the Lypovets community and the entire country. Supporting veteran-owned businesses and being there for them is our way of thanking veterans and their families,” says Ruslana Velychko-Tryfoniuk, acting Executive Director of the Ukrainian Veterans Foundation of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs.
30 participants of the Support for Micro-Enterprises of War Veterans and Their Families: From Idea to Implementation in the Vinnytsia Oblast Project came to Mykola Bondarenko to learn how to submit successful grant applications and start their own businesses. The participants included veterans and members of their families who had a chance to get UAH 100,000 to launch or expand their business.