LocationsEmpowering internally displaced women: story of Ukrainian NGO «Divergent Woman»
August 3, 2023
Members of the NGO “Divergent Woman”.
More than 200,000 internally displaced persons have found a refuge in Poltava Oblast, hailing from various regions such as Sumy, Donetsk, and Luhansk oblasts; primarily women with children. United by common ideas and values, they help each other and implement many essential projects that strengthen social cohesion.
One such initiative, with the support of the EU4Dialogue project of the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme, was implemented by the regional office of the NGO “Divergent Woman” in Poltava Oblast.
Karina Bulavina, the coordinator of the NGO “Divergent Woman” in Kharkiv Oblast, joined the organization team in September 2021 and began to build the Kharkiv regional office.
Karina Bulavina, the coordinator of the NGO “Divergent Woman” in Kharkiv Oblast.
“I learned firsthand how difficult it is for people who leave hoping to return home in a few weeks. And when this does not happen, they become desperate and do not know what to do. Such a situation can fatally affect their lives,” says Karina.
Karina lived in the village of Mala Danylivka, Kharkiv Oblast, before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“On February 24, I was in Kyiv on a business trip. At four in the morning, my husband called me: ‘We can see flashes!’ An hour later, tanks were already driving, airplanes were flying, and houses were burning. I have two children. My family went down to the cellar at five o’clock and spent two weeks there,” Karina Bulavina recalls the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
In the evening of the same day, she returned home. Karina delivered water, medicine, and bread to the people with the community leader, fellow deputies, and some active villagers.
“In our village, people stayed in their cellars for the first two weeks. It was very stressful; they had neither food nor medicine. That’s why we brought everything directly to their cellars,” Karina Bulavina recalls the first weeks after the invasion.
In April 2022, she and her family evacuated to Poltava and received IDP status. Yulia Karpenko, a member of the NGO “Divergent Woman” in Poltava Oblast, provided shelter for this family.
“In early March, I read a message in the organization’s group chat that the family of one of our members needed housing. Karina and I had not met before. I only knew two cars with people, cats, and dogs were coming, and they needed a safe place to stay. So, we settled them in our summer cottage and one of the apartments where we lived,” says Yulia Karpenko.
Yulia Karpenko works as a psychologist and consults victims of the war. In addition to her work within the project, Yulia is a social worker at a shelter for women who have experienced domestic violence.
“The major challenge is to comfort women experiencing a high-stress level,” emphasizes Yulia.
“Now, I take February 24 as an ordinary day. We are so used to all this that we don't perceive this day as special anymore.”
The regional office of the NGO “Divergent Woman” in the Poltava Oblast was founded three years ago. Starting in 2021 with business breakfasts about failures, the team visited 60 communities in the Poltava region with awareness-raising activities to combat domestic violence. However, the full-scale Russian invasion forced them to change their focus and implement projects to support IDPs. In 2022, the NGO “Divergent Woman” received support for their project within the programme “Response of civil society to the needs of women and men, especially those living in hard-to-reach places and representatives of vulnerable groups,” supported by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Members of the NGO “Divergent Woman”.
“We realized that relying on our experience, we could launch an initiative to support internally displaced women. Developing the concept for this project was a team effort involving all our members, including myself as a certified coach and my colleagues as psychologists, organizers, and volunteers. We tried to help women adapt to new living conditions,” says Karina Bulavina about the project of the NGO “Divergent Woman”.
Karina Bulavina and other team members also engaged experts and trainers who had worked with internally displaced women. For the project, focus groups were held with IDPs, local authorities, and the community to identify the needs and challenges faced by internally displaced persons in Poltava Oblast. Based on the research results, the four most pressing topics were selected for training, organized, and conducted in three communities: Kremenchuk, Poltava, and Kotelva. Participants also received individual and group counseling from a psychologist, coach, and lawyer.
“Women who visited our training sessions say their psychological and physical condition has improved significantly,” says Natalia Sychova, the NGO “Divergent Woman” coordinator in Poltava Oblast.
Natalia Sychova, the NGO “Divergent Woman” coordinator in Poltava Oblast.
“Our project supported the adaptation and implementation of educational activities for IDPs in Poltava Oblast. Women who visited our training say their psychological and physical condition has improved significantly,” says Natalia Sychova, the NGO “Divergent Woman” coordinator in Poltava Oblast.
In early February 2023, the team held a large-scale forum, “Friendly Communities: Integrated Services, Self-Organization and Mutual Assistance for IDPs in Poltava Oblast,” on integration of internally displaced persons in host communities.
“It is a collaboration of the business, government, and volunteer communities committed to helping internally displaced persons,” emphasizes Natalia.
Hanna Demianenko, coordinator of volunteer initiatives at the NGO “Divergent Woman,” pointed out that, besides providing psychological support, the organization offers Ukrainian language courses as well as Ukrainian history courses. As part of the project, group legal consultations were held for IDPs in various communities in Poltava Oblast.
“We are now fully focused on supporting IDPs. There is a separate group on social media called ‘Support for IDPs in Poltava, Kremenchuk, and Kotelva,’ where people are constantly chatting and receiving announcements of our events,” says Hanna. “Our project is about key services that offer qualitative and necessary assistance to women. We analyze the needs and provide group and individual assistance.”
On 1 September 2022, a support center for IDPs was set up at the Central City Library of the Poltava community, where project experts conduct consultations every Monday.
Entrance to the support center for IDPs.
Kateryna Shendryk is a former resident of Northern Saltivka, a Kharkiv neighborhood heavily affected by the Russian invasion. After finding refuge in Poltava, Kateryna actively participated in the NGO “Divergent Woman” training sessions and after that even implemented her own project.
“I liked the organization’s commitment. I participated in the first training on gender equality last summer. I became curious, so I came to the next workshops. As part of my own project, I teach women how to take care of themselves,” says Kateryna.
Kateryna Shendryk, IDP and participant of the training organized by the NGO “Divergent Woman”.
We visited the “Grand” dance studio in Kremenchuk to meet Tetiana Kandyba, an IDP from Sloviansk who, thanks to the “Divergent Woman” project, has managed to begin her life from scratch for the second time.
“It was like yesterday: on 12 April 2014, Saturday, at eight in the morning. We didn’t realize what was happening, so we immediately fled the city to save ourselves and our children’s lives. Of course, we hoped that it would end soon. That’s why we took last year’s events very seriously,” says Tetiana.
Tetiana Kandyba’s family first moved to Donetsk Oblast, then to Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and finally settled in Poltava Oblast. She had never been to Kremenchuk before and had no family here. After learning about the “Divergent Woman” project, Tetiana completed the “Effective Communication,” “Power of Surroundings,” “Promoting a Personal Brand on Social Media,” and “Business Model Canvas” training sessions, worked with a coach, and got individual legal consultations on social guarantees for IDPs.
Now she has adapted and gives dance classes to local children and IDPs who have also taken refuge in Kremenchuk.
Journalist Marharyta Lubkova (left) and participant of the training organized by the NGO “Divergent Woman” Tetiana Kandyba (right).
More than 200 internally displaced women temporarily residing in Poltava Oblast took part in the project’s training, got psychological or legal advice, and were never left alone in need.
The NGO “Divergent Woman” is one of the organizations that received support within the programme “Response of civil society to the needs of women and men, especially those living in hard-to-reach places and representatives of vulnerable groups” supported by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the EU-funded EU4Dialogue regional programme to address the most urgent needs of war-affected communities in Ukraine.
Author: Marharyta Lubkova
Photo: Artem Poznanskyi / UNDP Ukraine
Note: This article was produced with the European Union’s and UNDP’s financial assistance under the EU4Dialogue programme. The contents do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the European Union or UNDP.
