Deadline Date: December 21, 2025
The Estonian Refugee Council, with the support of the American people through the US Department of State’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, is implementing the online program “Resilient Initiatives for Self-Employment” (RISE) to help create and support sustainable businesses capable of generating stable income for conflict-affected populations in Ukraine.
The focus areas of the opportunity are business training, mentoring support, and business grants. The RISE program is part of the Project “Response Consortium: Providing Multi-Sectoral Humanitarian Assistance to the Conflict-Affected Population in Ukraine (2023–2026)” and is designed to provide comprehensive entrepreneurial support to help affected individuals establish or expand income-generating activities. The initiative integrates structured learning, practical guidance, and financial support to enable participants to build self-reliant micro-businesses that can sustainably grow.
The business training component will be delivered in partnership with the Ukrainian company LLC “VEBPROMO.” Approximately 573 participants with business ideas or existing micro-businesses will be trained through an online program that includes a series of trainings and simultaneous mentoring support from specialists. The training covers financial planning, marketing, branding, legal aspects of doing business, development of business plans, and skills for public presentation of business ideas. Participants will also receive assistance in preparing business plans or expansion plans for their micro-businesses, and those with the most promising plans will advance to the next stages of support.
The mentoring support component is aimed at helping participants implement their business plans and strengthen their entrepreneurial capacity. This support will be delivered online over a period of up to four months and will focus on areas such as finance and planning, branding and marketing, legal aspects of doing business, self-presentation skills, development of psychological resilience, and networking. Experienced entrepreneurs and industry experts will lead the mentoring sessions and offer individual guidance throughout the process.
The business grant component is intended for participants with the most promising business plans, with up to 234 participants expected to receive funding during 2025–2026. Grants of up to 2,000 US dollars will be awarded to participants launching new micro-businesses, while grants of up to 5,000 US dollars will be provided to participants expanding existing micro-businesses. The funding is directed towards the purchase of assets such as equipment and tools to support business operations.
The program is open to participants whose family members have suffered as a result of the military conflict in Ukraine and to local entrepreneurs whose business activities have been damaged due to the conflict. Eligible beneficiaries include individuals with business ideas to start a micro-business and existing micro-business owners needing support, including individual and family businesses with up to ten employees.
For more information, visit Public Space.
