The public organization "Women's Council of Donetsk Region" has been working in Mariupol since 2015, focusing on combating gender-based violence.
With the support of international partners and local government, the team opened a shelter for women who faced domestic violence, launched a mobile team for social and psychological assistance, and conducted numerous training sessions, including for police representatives who are the first responders to domestic violence calls.
After 2022, the team evacuated to Transcarpathia (Mukachevo), where they continue to support women.
The problems in Transcarpathia and Donetsk Region turned out to be similar: supporting women in wartime, gender discrimination, domestic violence. Therefore, the NGO "Women's Council of Donetsk Region" directed its efforts to address these issues.
Significant attention is paid by the NGO "Women's Council of Donetsk Region" to training. The team completed work on the online course "Youth Resilience in Crisis Conditions," which is freely available on the "Prometheus" platform. The course covers topics of psychology and sociology, teaching skills that help maintain productivity, resist stress, and recover one's mental, physical, and emotional state after traumatic events.
The NGO "Women's Council of Donetsk Region" has registered as a provider of social services. Today, 4 social workers and 4 psychologists from the organization work at the Resilience Center of Mukachevo community, where they provide their services.
"The Center also hosts group activities, there are support groups, art therapy — everything that helps a person get out of a state of anxiety, stress, find internal resources and see external ones. So that a person can return to a working state as soon as possible, to live here and now, to move forward," says the executive director of the "Women's Council of Donetsk Region," Yulia Prudnikova.
For several years, the NGO "Women's Council of Donetsk Region" has been organizing training that promotes the economic empowerment of women in Transcarpathia. Such training sessions discuss the development of entrepreneurial ideas, business plan formation, and grant search.
Thanks to the support of international partners, the NGO "Women's Council of Donetsk Region" implemented a comprehensive program that not only provided training but also offered psychological support, individual consultations, and group support. Women had the opportunity to try themselves in various fields: sewing, knitting, photography, etc.
After such training, there are already success stories: there are women who dared to start their own business or expand their business; they found the strength and inspiration for development. Such stories inspire the "Women's Council of Donetsk Region" to continue working.
Although the NGO "Women's Council of Donetsk Region" operates in Transcarpathia, far from home, it still maintains connections with its native region. The organization is part of the Coordination Council on combating domestic and gender-based violence and the Coalition "13-25 Donetsk."
There are many problems for women in Transcarpathia, especially for IDPs: insufficient temporary accommodation places, inadequate number of mobile social and psychological teams, and crisis rooms for those who have suffered from domestic violence.
Through its work, the NGO "Women's Council of Donetsk Region" plans to strengthen these areas and address socially significant issues.
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