Ksenia Tkachuk has a master's degree from the Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics. In the autumn of 2021, she took part, for the third time, in the Ukrainian Student Advertising Festival, supported by the ILO Project, funded by the EU. Ksenia won two prizes in the categories "Go to light — declare work!" (1st place) and "Work safely — save lives and health!" (3rd place). Learn how those were created.
I love watching the news. A while ago, I saw a report about a pregnant woman who was forcibly dismissed. I was so shocked that I decided to make a video about it for the festival.
I had to find a form to convey the necessary information within 30 seconds. But not in a usual boring way: "Doing so is bad and wrong. Do not do that. Do this instead", but differently: creatively, with humour. For that, the silent movie format was perfect.
According to the plot, the woman loses her job because she is pregnant, but she cannot do anything since her job was undeclared. To remedy the situation, the moviemaker stops filming and instructs the screenwriter to rewrite the plot.
She also notes that it was supposed to be an office comedy rather than a drama. With these words, I tried to tell the audience: our life is full of drama, so why ask for more problems for ourselves? Declare your work if you have not yet done so, and you will be fine instead of having more drama.
Some people that I know ignored declaring their work. Some lost money and their jobs. Others ended up without a pension.
I have not had a job yet, but I am confident that work must be declared. It must become clear to as many people as possible. Preferably, when they are young, and even better – when as young as in school years, because the law allows people to work starting at 16.
Workers' safety is the best investment
In my other work, I addressed workers and employers who fail to respect safety requirements to work due to ignorance or indifference. The idea was prompted by a real-life situation as well.
I was a drawing star in school. Once I was asked to make paintings on a wall in the school. That was the way I learned how difficult it is to work with paint without safety measures and what consequences it can cause.
Every successful entrepreneur must know that a healthy worker equals a happy employer. And workers need to take care of their health when they are still young, rather than, having grown old, regret having worked in the wrong place. As they say: you never miss the water till the well runs dry.
