Holistic wellbeing support for women affected by war in Ukraine
Situation:
The current war in Ukraine has caused the largest and fastest growing internal displacement crisis worldwide. Due to the fluid and rapidly changing security situation, the need for Gender-Based Violence and Sexual and Reproductive Health services has continued to rise. Multiple forms of violence, such as human trafficking, disproportionately affect women and children in (de-)occupied territories.
Objectives:
The ultimate target of this project is to provide a key entry point for GBV survivors, enabling them to address experiences of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) as a first step to overcome their trauma. In a safe space, they will be enabled to access comprehensive support services including medical services, psychosocial support and accompaniment during the criminal investigations and trials of war crimes related to CRSV and SEA.
- 700 women receive professional psychological assistance and medical examinations by our SRH service partner in the regions of Kyiv and Chernihiv.
- Andreev Family Foundation’s crisis hotline provides 1,000 women and children with psychological support, hotline counselling, information on protection, prevention of CRSV and SEA, and refers them to life-saving medical services.
- 25 survivors of GBV in the de-occupied territories of Kyiv and Chernihiv regions receive comprehensive psychological and medical treatment as well as accompaniment during criminal investigations and trials of war crimes related to CRSV and SEA.
- Service delivery: Increase the availability of and access to comprehensive psychological support, emergency GBV services, including through the psychological and medical accompaniment during the criminal investigations and trials of war crimes related to sexual violence, especially for women, children, and female persons with disabilities.
- GBV awareness and mitigation: Advertise the offered support to increase the number of people who know where to access services around GBV/CRSV/SEA (hotline, mobile teams, etc.). Raise awareness to fight the social stigma around GBV and promote a survivor-centred, gender-sensitive approach in (social) media channels and public spaces.
- GBV and SRH coordination: Provide a key entry point for GBV survivors and strengthen coordination mechanisms for GBV and SRH responses through improved referral systems to specialised health services, capacity strengthening, technical support, counselling, and enhanced monitoring.
- Capacity building: Improve the capacity of local implementing partner to better manage internal financial reporting towards donors, and to prevent burnout of their staff and to conduct professional, needs-based and survivor-centred programming.
This is a humanitarian project in an active war setting. The capacity strengthening activities improve the long-term ability of the partner organisation to serve women and children in the project regions. During previous projects in Ukraine, WfWI-DE and its partners have implemented an advocacy workshop with local authorities to strengthen local ownership and ensure the sustainability of our approach. Our activities in Ukraine respond to a rising demand for medical and psychological support services.
Unlike other organisations who operate in the Ukraine context, WfWI focuses on more than the humanitarian dimension. With a gender-sensitive and survivor-centred approach, we support women and girls who have lived the horrors of war and have trouble accessing lifesaving services. Furthermore, we support women to report war crimes related to sexual and gender-based violence and offer emotional support throughout the retraumatising trial processes. We apply learning from our Bosnian sister organisation, as well as decades od experience of working with women in fragile and conflict affected settings.
Here you can find further information.
