Women for Women

Ukrainian civil society organizations led by women have been facing unprecedented challenges since Russia invaded their country. These include providing safety for colleagues, rapidly making and implementing managerial decisions, and finding innovative solutions to the problems of the people they serve. Here, two women leaders with deep experience of working in crisis situations share what propels them and their organization. 

The Association of Wives and Mothers of Soldiers Participating in ATO (anti-terrorist operations) has been supporting Ukrainian women affected by war since 2014. The NGO was founded to foster community among women united in grief from losing their sons and husbands in the battle of Ilovaisk. It is dedicated to providing support, especially psychological, legal and social, for those who survive tragedies of war. The organization boasts a large, nationwide network, with 14 chapters and more than 20 mutual assistance groups. It nearly shut down after Russia’s invasion in February 2022. 

“Our women leaders got busy volunteering or trying to save their families by relocating. Many of them got trapped in occupied regions. So all of the projects and agreements were put on hold, as safety of our managers was in question,” Nataliia Muzyka, the association’s head and a project manager, recalls. Yet the organization knew it could not stop operating as the number of women needing assistance skyrocketed. Muzyka applied for a GMF grant and organized a strategy session to determine priorities to keep going. 

Urgent Digital Transformation

One priority was digital literacy. The majority of the association’s managers are older women who reside in small localities, far from each other. They lacked the skills to communicate online, which was a threat to their personal safety. This was, in part, because association staff kept in their homes membership cards with the personal information of up to 600 women. If the cards were to fall into enemy hands, they would have information about the families of Ukraine’s defenders. “One of our managers put all membership cards in a jar and buried it in the garden to protect the personal data of hundreds of women in her unit. We all knew that it was not a solution, [but] something had to be done,” Muzyka says.

The association faced a challenge in determining how to save so much sensitive personal data without risking staff safety. With international support, however, the team mastered online skills and transferred within three months all data to a secure virtual location. “Knowledge, which we have got, helps us to make faster decisions and to react immediately to emerging issues. Data security trainings were especially valuable for me,” comments Kateryna Svytsch, one of the association’s unit leaders. Digitizing communications was vital for strengthening the network, bolstering women’s rights, and more efficiently delivering psychological, legal, and social support, and food assistance. 

The association has been operating for eight years. Its team members are motivated by faith in their own abilities and the unmet needs of women nationwide. “Regardless of how motionless I felt when seeing bombings from my window, when I got a request for help, it nudged me to go and do the work,” Muzyka says.

Building Out

For years, City of Goodness has assisted the most vulnerable children and their mothers, often survivors of domestic violence. Yet in 2022, after the full Russian invasion, the charitable foundation’s shelter expanded and began hosting internally displaced persons. “When the war broke out, plenty of people needed help, and all we could do was to accept everybody. Our corridors, playroom, library were transformed into bedrooms. In every single corner where we could fit a bed, we did,” City of Goodness Co-founder Marta Levchenko says. “We have built a second house to accommodate more kids and started building a third one with a bomb shelter. It is the first time that such miracles are happening for our organization, and it is thanks to international support.”

City of Goodness provides the first shelter in Ukraine that offers each woman in need an individual development plan and a mentor for support. Levchenko says that many residents must restart their lives as they may have lost their husbands and their homes in the war.

Meeting hundreds of children and their mothers traumatized by war, Levchenko constantly faces problems she has never before encountered. “It feels like children are falling down, and we are catching them on the fly just before they are about to сrash. It is a hard job, but we are focused on solutions and this is what drives us to continue providing help and growing,” she says.

The organization has not abandoned victims of domestic violence, however. Nataliya, a shelter “graduate”, arrived with broken ribs and her four children. She was scared and needed urgent medical and psychological help. Nataliya stayed at the shelter throughout her recovery and shared with a mentor her dream to launch a business selling garlic. City of Goodness helped her to find a plot of land, obtain the necessary permits, and get a free spot at a local vegetable market. Nataliya lives today with her children in a fully furnished apartment, which the shelter helped her find. She runs her own business, which she plans to expand. 

The organization has not abandoned victims of domestic violence, however. Nataliya, a shelter “graduate”, arrived with broken ribs and her four children. She was scared and needed urgent medical and psychological help. Nataliya stayed at the shelter throughout her recovery and shared with a mentor her dream to launch a business selling garlic. City of Goodness helped her to find a plot of land, obtain the necessary permits, and get a free spot at a local vegetable market. Nataliya lives today with her children in a fully furnished apartment, which the shelter helped her find. She runs her own business, which she plans to expand.

Embodying Sisterhood

Nataliia Muzyka of the Association of Wives and Mothers of Soldiers Participating in ATO says that what motivates her and other women are their families and children. Muzyka has seen in the course of the war that women’s movements and peer-to-peer support can prompt significant change and inspire others to become activists. “Women might be different, but when we unite around one idea, then sisterhood emerges. Giving a hand to another woman can require only one call or a text message, but it will make her feel she is not alone and give her necessary confidence to keep on going,” she says. 

Such sisterhood is also embodied by City of Goodness, since all team members bar one are women. But that was never Levchenko’s goal. “I don’t divide qualified people and their actions into categories such as ‘done by a man’ or ‘done by a woman’. If you are a human with an idea, your sex is not important. You just do what you feel has to be done.”