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Overview of the role of Christmas in Ukraine

Traditional Ukrainian Christmas festivities start on Christmas Eve, which is celebrated on 6 January, as reckoned by the Julian calendar. The Christmas celebrations end on 19 January, the date of Epiphany, or Yordan in Ukrainian, by the Julian calendar.[4]

As of 2017, 25 December, Christmas day by the Gregorian calendar, became an official government holiday in Ukraine. The Eastern Orthodox Church and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Churches predominantly follow the Julian Calendar, and 7 January is also a public holiday in Ukraine.[5][6] In December 2020, the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epiphanius, said that changing the date of Christmas to 25 December in Ukraine is possible after both the church and the faithful are ready for such a decision, after conducting educational work. It was stated that the postponement of the Nativity of the Lord would entail a change in the dates of all fixed holidays to 13 days ago.[7] In December 2020, the head of the UGCC, Patriarch Sviatoslav, stated that the Greek Catholic Church would resolve this issue "together with our Orthodox brothers." He also noted that this issue is not dogmatic, it should overcome church divisions, not cause new ones, and in his opinion, the transition to celebrating Christmas in a new style 25 December, should be initiated by the laity.

Christmas Eve, or as its called Sviatyi Vechir or Sviatvechir in Ukrainian ("Holy Evening") is filled with numerous customs and rituals. Traditions include decorating house and dinner table with special attributes (a symbolic sheaf of wheat called the didukh, garlic, hay, and others), performing koliadky ('carols') and so on. Each ritual has its own meaning and purpose, as such a few wisps of hay on the embroidered tablecloth as a reminder of the manger in Bethlehem. One prominent customs of the night is a special supper, called Sviata Vecheria ("Holy Supper").[citation needed]

Whole family brings together to have a dinner which includes 12 dishes. These twelve dishes traditionally do not contain meat, milk, or eggs when served for this meal. [8]Kutia (sweet grain pudding) is traditionally served at the Ukrainian Christmas dinner table. It is often the first dish in the traditional twelve-dish Christmas-Eve supper and is rarely served at other times of the year.[9]

At the end of the Sviata Vechera the family often sings carols (koliadky, singular koliadka). In many communities the ancient Ukrainian tradition of caroling is carried on by groups of young people and members of organizations and churches calling at homes and collecting donations. Well-known carol is "Boh predvichnyi narodyvsia".[10]

When the children see the first star in the eastern evening sky, the dinner may begin. In farming communities the head of the household brings in a sheaf of wheat called the didukh which represents the importance of the ancient and rich wheat crops of Ukraine, the staff of life through the centuries. Didukh means literally "grandfather spirit" so it symbolizes the family's ancestors. In city homes a few stalks of golden wheat in a vase are often used to decorate the table, they also decorate the dinner table with garlic.

A shopka is a traditional portable nativity scene used to represent nativity and other figures in a puppet form.

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Christmas in Ukraine - Wikipedia

Mikheil Saakashvili detained in Georgia will receive full support and protection from the Ukrainian consular services as he is a citizen of Ukraine.

The position of the Ukrainian state is as follows: regardless of surname and social status, a citizen of Ukraine enjoys the full support and protection of Ukraine anywhere in the world. That is why Ukraine provides Mr. Saakashvili with the same amount of consular assistance that is granted to any other citizen who gets into trouble abroad, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said in an interview with Ukrinform.

He noted that the consul had visited Saakashvili on Monday, while the Ukrainian embassy in Georgia should establish a mechanism for prompt cooperation with the Georgian authorities so that issues related to the case could be resolved at any time.

The minister added that further actions would depend on the procedural steps taken by the Georgian authorities against Saakashvili.

"But we will protect him because he is our citizen," the foreign minister summed up.

As reported, on Friday morning, October 1, Saakashvili posted a video on Facebook, in which he said that he was in Batumi.

In the evening of the same day, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili announced that Mikheil Saakashvili had been detained on October 1. In turn, the former president went on a hunger strike, saying he considered himself a political prisoner.

Mikheil Saakashvili was the president of Georgia in 2008-2013. After losing the 2013 election, he left the country. Several criminal cases were instituted against him in his homeland, within some of which he was sentenced to imprisonment in absentia.

In 2015, Saakashvili was deprived of Georgian citizenship and has been a citizen of Ukraine for almost six years. He currently heads the Executive Committee of the National Reform Council of Ukraine.

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FM: Ukraine to protect Saakashvili just like any other citizen - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

KYIV -- Ukrainian authorities say they have launched an investigation into an assault on journalists of the Skhemy (Schemes) program during an interview with Ukreksimbank chief Yevhen Metsher in Kyiv.

The National Police have launched a probe into obstruction of the journalists' work, the force said on October 5, a day after the incident in Metsher's office.

The incident started when Kyrylo Ovsyaniy -- a reporter for Skhemy, a joint investigative project by RFE/RL and UA: Pershy television -- asked Metsher a question that angered the bank executive as part of an investigation that the journalists plan to make pubic soon.

Metsher instructed security personnel to stop the journalists and take their cameras and video materials away, after which physical force was used against cameraman Oleksandr Mazur to forcibly seize his two cameras and memory cards.

The journalists were allowed to leave the office after the interview was deleted from their memory cards.

The head of Ukreksimbank's press service, Volodymyr Pikalov, was also present during the incident.

Ovsyaniy recorded the incident with an audio device, and posted the clip on YouTube.

In a statement on Facebook, the bank did not address allegations that force was used against journalists.

The statement said the press service was "forced to stop the interview" because the questions were related to information about clients, which it said the bank did not have the right to provide to journalists.

It said the journalists also "made assumptions about alleged violations committed by the bank."

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Ukraine Investigates Assault On Journalists During Interview With Bank Executive - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

UkraineUAE Business Forum was held in Dubai during the National Day of Ukraine at Expo 2020.

Holding the National Day of Ukraine in the first days of the exhibition is significant. For the first time, Ukraine participates in the World Expo exhibition with its own pavilion. I am confident that our country's participation in the words largest fair will help find new forms of cooperation, strengthen partnerships with business circles of the UAE, as well as other participating countries, said Iryna Novikova, head of the official delegation of Ukraine, Deputy Economy Minister of Ukraine, the Ministrys press service informed on October 5.

As part of the National Day, a tour of the Ukraine Pavilion for the official delegations of the UAE and Ukraine and the UkraineUAE Business Forum was held.

During the forum, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the UAE Federation of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

The program of the event was divided into three thematic sessions: energy (energy for sustainable development), agro-industrial complex, IT and innovation. According to the deputy minister, these are currently "the most promising areas of economic and investment cooperation between Ukraine and the UAE."

The official ceremony on the occasion of the National Day of Ukraine at the World Expo 2020 was attended by UAE Minister of Tolerance Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan and UAE Minister of State for Food and Water Security Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri.

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UkraineUAE business forum held within Expo 2020 - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

Terms of Reference for carrying out follow-up study of the New Ukrainian School reformimplementation

Learning Together is a four-year collaborative project between Ukraine and Finland. The project is funded by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the European Commission. The Finnish consortium in charge of the project implementation is led byFCGInternational Ltd. The project started in August 2018 and will continue till July2022.

The project focuses on supporting the New Ukrainian School (NUS) reform, especially in the primary education, and is designed around three main clusters and cross-cutting elements. These clusters are (1) teacher preparation, (2) education promotion, and (3) educationenvironment.

Learning together is now seeking to contract a qualified and experienced research organization/NGOwhich could carry out annual follow up study that will provide data on awareness on and perception of theNUSreform and its impact on schools. The purpose of this Terms of Reference (TOR) is to call for competitive service providers to carry out this research. This assignment focuses on carrying out research to produce reliable data about the Projects results and the reform on which the decision makers can rely and further develop the implementation activities.

1.Introduction

TheNUSreform piloting started in 129 schools in September 2017. In those schools all the first-graders followed new education standard, curricula and teaching methods. New education environments were developed and teachers were specially trained for new teaching approaches. In 2018 theNUSreform was rolled outnationwide.

In 2019, Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) launched a study to find out results ofNUSreform in everyday teaching and learning. The baseline study was conducted in autumn 2019 among 149 third grade teachers, 897 third grade students, 149 school principals and 2497 parents. It also aimed to find out the target audiences perceptions about the school reform. Total of 25 pilot schools and 124 normal schools were sampled to participate in this study. Published results of this survey can be found by this link:https://bit.ly/3wVegyU.

For further implementation of the reform, it is planned to carry out follow-up studies among the same target audiences in 2021. It is expected that about 75% of the questionnaire items used in the study will remain the same in order to follow the trends. Additionally, monitoring study onNUSawareness and perception will be conducted among general public and localofficials.

Target groups:3 grade teachers, 3 grade pupils, parents, school principals, general population, local educationaladministrations.

2. Objective

We are looking for an experienced and reliable research organization/NGOthat can conduct the follow-up monitoring study in 2021. The major goal of this study is to support decision makers by providing reliable data about the level of implementation and communication ofNUS. This includes also pragmatic recommendations how to further enhance the implementation. The survey will also provide monitoring data on the ProjectsKPIs, asfollows:

The main research question is: what is the level of implementation ofNUScontents in the schools? Thus, the study should focus on educational contents, teaching approaches and knowledge, skills and competences that studentslearn.

Some questions used in the first-round surveywere:

3. Scope of Work

The Service Provider will be contractedto:

3.1 Design, implement, analyze and report on the results of the monitoring study,including:

Planned study components andmethods:

Methods:

1) observation of students group work 2 competence-based tasks (structured and creative) for a group of 6 randomly selected students; observation by two trained experts, filling in an evaluation form with 15 closedquestions.

2) self-administered questionnaire for students (6-10items).

Method:observation of 3rd grade teachers performance in the class during a day; two trained experts, filling in evaluation forms to fix teachers statements and coding them by 10-15types.

Methods:

1) observation of students work in the class during a day; two trained experts, filling in monitoring forms on types and formats of work used and time spent on eachtype/format.

2) self-administered questionnaire for students around 30 questions, 2/3 of themclosed-end.

Up to 40 question items, 2 of themopen-ended.

Up to 30 question items on their attitudes regardingNUSreform and their needs andproposals.

Up to 5 closed-end questions, their awareness and attitudes regardingNUSreform. Participation in an omnibus-type survey isenvisioned.

Planed sample size 1000.

Phone/online representative survey of local educational authorities, up to 15 question items, 3 of whichopen-ended.

Planed sample size 600.

4. Expected Deliverables

The Service Provider will submit the followingdeliverables:

4.1. Analytical framework (Description of data that will be collected in the survey, for what purpose, why it is important to collect those and how these things will be reported, where and towhom).

4.2. Development of study tools in English and Ukrainian (about 75% of the instruments and questionnaire items will be repeated from the previous baseline study) including pretesting. The questionnaires should include items for measuring Projects Key Performance Indicators,NUSReform Perception Key Performance Indicators as set in the Communication Strategy 2019-2022 of MoES (understanding of the reform, understanding of particular messages of the campaigns, acceptance of the reform in the targetgroups).

4.3. Development of studyprocedures.

4.2. Technical report, where study design, including sampling, weights,QMprocedures, data collection procedures will be explained in detail in Ukrainian andEnglish.

4.3. Implementation of the study in2021.

4.4. Inputting the data, cleaning the data, in the created databank (MSExcel/SPSS).

4.5. Analyzing the data and producing results (tables and figures) accordingly to Analytical framework described in 4.1. including calculation of the Project andNUSReform Perception Key PerformanceIndicators.

4.6. Draw up recommendations based on the collected data for decision makers and various targetaudiences.

4.7. Write summary reports on targeted audiences in close collaboration withMOES, Reform Support Team (RST) and Learning Together project inUkrainian.

The first data collection should start in October2021.

The firstanalytical report should be ready by January 10,2022.

The supervision of workwill be carried out by the Project Learning Together, Ministry of Education and Science, and Reform Support Team (RST) staff members. It is expected that MoES will support this survey by an official order to be issued not later than in June2021.

5. Budget

The budget, details of the assignment, terms and conditions will be specified in the contract between the FCG International Ltd (Contractor) and the Service Provider. Payment milestones will be based on the acceptance of the key deliverables by the Project Management Team.

6. Submission requirements

The Proposalmust include thefollowing:

6.1 A Technical Proposal not exceeding 10 pages in length including the intended approach and the planned activities in the management of the undertaking, including an example of analytical framework, and, description about item development, operational work plan with timelines and plan how the quality of the work will be monitored. Risk analysis should be also included, as well as examples of reports on the similar projects ineducation.

6.2 Breakdown ofcosts

The budget breakdown must include two separate sections: Fees of experts and Other Costs. The fees shall be defined on rates based on working days or working months. Other Costs must be broken down to correspond the Technical Proposal and Work Plan. The Budget Breakdown must be inEuros.

6.3 The Curriculum Vitae of the team members with obligatory examples of participation in similar researchprojects.

6.4. Official documents proving the status of the organization and the document proving the financial capacity (annual turnover and profit/loss) of theorganization.

Copies of registration documents (including a copy of the certificates of state registration of legal entities which the Participant plans to apply for the provision of services, a copy of the tax certificate; an Extract from the Statute indicating theactivities).

Other relevant supporting material may be attached as anannex.

The Proposal must be inEnglish.

7. Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on Quality (90% weight) and Price (10%weight).

The quality of the proposal will be evaluated based on thefollowing:

Organization:

The Service Providers teamsqualifications:

TechnicalProposal:

The best candidates will be invited for an interview consisting of a 20 minutes presentation and 15 minutes for Q&A.

8. Deadline for Proposals

The timeline of the tender is asfollows:

In case the tenderers want to have further clarification on the competition, written questions must be sent via email (dmytro.morgun@fcg.fi) by October 11,2021.

All tenderers will be provided with answers to all clarification requests by October 13,2021.

The final application must be submitted by October 15 (including), 2021 via email todmytro.morgun@fcg.fi.

Please note that all written communication must be in English. Further instructions for the tender are given only from the email mentioned above. Advice obtained from other sources may be disregarded in the tenderevaluation.

Originally posted here:
Follow-up study of the New Ukrainian School reform implementation - KyivPost - Ukraine's Global Voice - Kyiv Post