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As part of the Leipzig Festival of Lights, the candle sponsorship initiative took place for the fourth time in 2023. In 2023, donations amounting to 3,000 euros were collected and handed over to EuropaMaidan Leipzig e. V. On 5 December 2023, Leipzig’s Lord Mayor Burkhard Jung and Volker Bremer, Managing Director of Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing GmbH, presented the donation cheque at the New Town Hall to Stephan Bickhardt and Alina Artamina (Chair of EuropaMaidan Leipzig e. V. and Deputy Chair).
The “Kuratorium Friedliche Revolution 1989” had decided that the proceeds from the candle sponsorships should benefit EuropaMaidan Leipzig e. V. this year. The association was founded in 2014, when hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine demonstrated against the government. It collects donations for Ukrainian projects, for Ukrainian refugees, and for people who have remained in Ukraine despite the war. Together with partners in Kyiv and in close cooperation with the relief organisation Brot für die Welt, the association organises psychosocial services as well as training programmes for trauma therapy for refugees. In addition, EuropaMaidan Leipzig e. V. initiates exchange programmes and personal encounters for students from Ukraine and Germany.
Among the donors, alongside the numerous generous visitors to the Leipzig Festival of Lights 2023, were also companies from Leipzig. Donations could be made both on site at the candle distribution points and digitally.