Life doesn’t always go according to plan. Sometimes circumstances force you to leave behind what’s familiar, start over from scratch, and redefine what you can rely on.
That’s what happened to Lilia Movchan.
Lilia was born and raised in Kolomak. After school, she moved to Kharkiv, where she trained as a computer operator. She planned to work in her field, but her first job was selling goods at the Barabashovo Market. What was supposed to be temporary gradually became permanent.
Eventually, Lilia started her own family: a husband, a daughter, a son, and an apartment in Kharkiv. The couple worked, set up their home, and made plans for the future.
On February 23, 2022, Lilia and her family traveled to Kolomak for her sister’s birthday. They planned to stay only for a day and return home to Kharkiv the next day. But on the morning of February 24, they woke up to the news of the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Shelling began in Kharkiv, and Saltivka, where the family lived, came under constant attack. They never returned home.
On March 18, two shells hit their apartment. The home was completely destroyed by fire. Along with it, the family lost their documents, belongings, furniture, and savings.
On March 16, 2022, Lilia’s husband was drafted. For the next year, he was almost unable to come home. Meanwhile, Lilia stayed with her parents along with the children. They could live there temporarily, but the family needed to think about the future and resolve the issue of their own housing.
After consulting with her husband, Lilia went to the Czech Republic for a few months to work. The money Lilia earned, combined with her husband’s salary, enabled the family to buy a house in Kolomak. Thus, the village where Lilia was born and raised became the place where their family began to rebuild their lives.
Along with their new home, a new venture gradually took shape.
Lilia began growing strawberries. At first, she planted about 50 seedlings, and then she began teaching herself the ins and outs of caring for the plants, researching information on fertilization, protection against diseases and pests, and experimenting with different varieties.
Today, she has about 400 strawberry plants of the Malvina, Capri, Albion, and Murano varieties. Lilia is particularly fond of everbearing varieties.
Several seasons of experience showed that growing strawberries in open ground presents its own challenges due to dry weather conditions. Therefore, the next step was the decision to move toward greenhouse cultivation.
That’s when Lilia joined the “Dream. Implement. Achieve” project—to gain the knowledge needed to turn her own experience and passion into a business she could grow.
During the training, she mastered the basics of starting and growing a business and developed a business plan for growing strawberries in a greenhouse.
💬 “The project provided a wealth of knowledge on setting and achieving goals. First and foremost—developing useful habits: time management, managing a household budget wisely, building a supportive network, communication skills and conflict resolution, and stress management. It also covered the finer points of running a business: advertising products, taking competitors and risks into account,” says Lilia.
For Lilia, “Dream. Create. Achieve” became more than just a business course. It was an opportunity to structure her own idea, assess its prospects, and see what steps were needed to turn it into a source of income.
Today, Lilia not only has 400 strawberry plants but also a clear understanding of where she wants to go next.
Her story is about the ability to adapt, learn, and build something new when previous plans no longer work.
The “Dream. Create. Achieve” project is implemented by Convictus Ukraine in partnership with and with the support of Norwegian People’s Aid Ukraine and aims to strengthen the economic empowerment of women in communities.