‘I just wanted to create something that would be useful’ – how Diana set up an Eco-Printing Station in Bucha, with help from EU4Youth

Diana Pridma has never run her own business before. She was not looking for a profitable business or quick results. Instead, she had something else – a deep understanding that young people need opportunities, and that the community needs support and a space to bring everyone together. This is how the Eco-Printing Station appeared in Bucha outside Kyiv, a social enterprise based at the Plast Youth Centre (the national scouting organisation of Ukraine), which today not only provides printing services, but also supports the community.

The idea arose during Diana’s participation in the ‘Startui: Social Entrepreneurship in a Youth Centre’ initiative, implemented by the NGO Youth Platform and the School of Mindful Entrepreneurship (School of ME), with the support of the EU and the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as part of the ‘EU4Youth Phase III – Strengthening sustainability and social inclusion of young people’ project. Diana received a comprehensive training: from the basics of entrepreneurship to financial planning, branding, and marketing. She also benefited from mentoring support, a grant, and a community of people like her – those who want to change the environment.

The Eco-Printing Station is a space where merch that matters is created. You can print anything here – from your favourite quote on a mug to branded T-shirts, stickers or notebooks. But this is only one side of the work. The other side is social: from each order, all the profits are donated to support youth initiatives in the Kyiv region.

“I am not a businesswoman. I am a person from Plast, from the community, from youth work. But when you have an idea and support, it becomes a reality,” says Diana.

The money earned by the Eco-Printing Station is used to organise camps for scouts, to run a mini-grants competition for teenagers and to develop educational activities in the region. In other words, a print order becomes a contribution to change, which translates into a camp, a dream, or a project by 15-year-old Mariia from the Kyiv Region, who will organise her own event for the first time thanks to the support.

A special project for the Eco-Printing Station was the Bucha collection of themed merch inspired by the city that has become a symbol of strength, resilience, and recovery. These T-shirts are not just things. They are a remembrance, gratitude, and pride for the community that withstood a full-scale invasion and brutal occupation. Part of the proceeds from the sale of this collection will also be used to support initiatives in Bucha and the Kyiv region as a whole.

“When we launched the Startui: Social Entrepreneurship in Youth Centre programme together with our partners at the NGO Youth Platform, we wanted to show young people that entrepreneurship can be a tool for change – not just a way to earn money. Diana’s story proves that if you give young people knowledge, mentoring support and a small start-up resource, they are capable of creating initiatives that become points of development for entire communities. This is how social entrepreneurship works – a small idea can have a big impact,” says Artem Kornetskyi, Head of the School of ME.

Today, the Eco-Printing Station has its own clients, partners, and is growing every day, experimenting with design and format. But the main thing remains the same – it is about printing with meaning.

“We want everything that comes out of our hands to have value – not only material, but also social,” says Diana Pridma.

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