Inna Ivaniuk, Head of Povchanska Amalgamated Hromada, Rivne region

When Inna Ivaniuk was first elected as the head of Povchanska village council, the village budget was 180 000 UAH and it was barely enough to cover the salaries of the council employees. The village was according to her words a rather depressive place, and due to the lack of jobs, its residents were moving out. When the opportunity of amalgamation was opening up, local residents trusted the only female candidate running for the position as the head of hromada – Inna Ivaniuk, and they made no mistake.     

An educated lawyer, Ms. Inna is familiar with the intricacies of filling the hromada budget and its effective allocation. Under her leadership, the hromada got a new village outpatient clinic as part of the “Accessible Medicine” programme. For the first time over 25 years, a kindergarten and its three groups became fully functional, the road was renovated. Inna Ivaniuk says that over the past year, the budget has increased by 13,5 Mio UAH, and finding a house for sale in the central village is hardly possible. “The improvement of the infrastructure and quality of life raised the birth rate in our hromada. Last year, we had 10 newborns more that in the previous years. Meanwhile, people choose to stay rather than to leave,” the head of Povchanska hromada says.  Inna Ivaniuk believes that successful women are the foundation of an effective civil society.