Two enterprises in Mena, Chernihiv Oblast received grants for development

USD 25 thousand each for development: two enterprises in Mena, Chernihiv Oblast, received grants.

For the first time since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, a new enterprise has started operating in the Menshchyna region, SUSPILNE reports.

It is a garment factory opened by local resident Vasyl Kondakov. He submitted his project to the American PEARL grant program and won $25,000. In total, four Ukrainians won the program, two of them entrepreneurs from Mena. What they spent the money on and how small and large businesses in the Mena region operate during the war.

“I set up a sewing machine and started sewing so that I wouldn’t go crazy when tanks were driving around the garden,” Vasyl Kondakov recalls the beginning of his sewing career at the beginning of the Russian invasion.

“Thank God that the Internet hasn’t been canceled, and I learned to sew. I taught myself how to sew. I organized a small business at home and tried it all out. I tried to sew with people, tried to sew some products, and I succeeded.”

The man says that with the help of the city council, he wrote a grant to the American PEARL program and won $25,000 to purchase equipment.

“The grant helped me buy only 18 machines. I need 29 for my company, and I already have them all. The company is designed for 20 work places, and at the moment we have six of them, 14 vacancies are open, and two people are studying.”

“My goal is to take people from abroad and bring them back to the city. Here, sit down, work, the same salary, the same conditions, everything is the same, just go home,” Vasyl Kondakov says.

The factory makes both clothing and bedding. On the opening day, the company already received its first order from Menakomunposlug for work clothes for employees.

Mena Mayor Gennadiy Prymakov says this is the first business to open in their community since the start of the full-scale invasion.

“We took part in the grant program, in the competition, knowing that many of our entrepreneurs need such assistance.”

Another entrepreneur from Mena, Valentyn Bozhenov, also won grant money. His bakery operated in Mena during the repulsion of Russian aggression in Chernihiv region. The grant money helped the entrepreneur hire two new employees and buy an oven.

“We decided to save on electricity, and because this stove is pellet-fired, wood-fired, we can say that it primarily saves us energy. It also gives us a larger baking capacity.”

Ukraine Front Lines