Moving to a new city where you know no one can seem scary but we have a solution. Getting a buddy it is! 

Who is a buddy?

A buddy is a local student who knows the city, the university and can share plenty of lifehacks to make your life in Kyiv a little less confusing at the very beginning. A buddy is your first contact, your navigator or translator when needed, and of course, your friend.

How can I get a buddy? 

ESN Kyiv uses a Papaya matching system to assign buddies to exchange students. All you need to do is register and wait!

Here are the steps:

  1. Go to https://papaya.iter-idea.com.
  2. Register with your Facebook account. 
  3. Fill out your personal data and make sure to correctly mention your university and faculty.
  4. After that, go back to Papaya home page, click on Buddy System and subscribe to a project.
  5. Wait for Papaya and ESN Kyiv to do their magic!

NB. Please note that when choosing languages you speak, there's no option to choose Ukrainian. However, we guarantee that every local student who's on Papaya Buddy System is a native speaker of Ukrainian.

You can also use Papaya apps:

How do I contact my buddy?

You don't. Your buddy will contact you first, it's that simple! However, if something goes wrong and you don't get contacted, make sure to send us an email to ukraine@esn.org and we'll find a solution.