Ukrainian families will receive comprehensive support under the "We Can Do It" project

Ukrainian families will receive comprehensive support under the "We Can Do It" project

More than 1500 Ukrainian women and men will receive psychological, legal and humanitarian assistance in Lviv, Poltava and Cherkasy regions. The Zaporuka Charitable Foundation initiated the We Can Do It project to support families, including women and children, affected by the war to reduce their vulnerability and return them to active life.

The initiative is being implemented with the technical support of UN Women in Ukraine and with funding from the UN Women's Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF). The WPHF is a flexible and rapid funding instrument that supports quality interventions aimed at increasing the capacity of local women to prevent conflict, respond to crises and emergencies, and seize key peacebuilding opportunities.

Within the project, more than 1500 people psychological, legal and humanitarian assistance will be provided in three regions - Poltava, Cherkasy and Lviv.

In addition, the Zaporuka team will open three new spaces for children's development, as well as three centers for psychosocial support for women based on regional NGOs.

In general, a set of educational and psychological measures is planned to provide sustainable support to families in difficult life situations to help them overcome difficulties and adapt to new conditions. Those who will receive assistance include IDP families with children; women who have suffered significant losses during the war; women victims of gender-based violence and other vulnerable categories.

To ensure that the assistance is as effective as possible, Zaporuka and its partners research the needs of community residents to better understand the situation.

"We can do it" is being implemented in two ways:

1. Providing direct legal, psychological, and humanitarian support to women in need to strengthen their active participation in society.
2. Strengthening regional civil society organizations that work with women and families. This will help not only to support the local civic and volunteer movement, but also to more effectively implement comprehensive assistance.

"The We Can Do It project brings together people who are able and willing to provide assistance and those who need it. It is based on synergy and mutual reinforcement. For Zaporuka, this is a consistent continuation and complement to its core business. Since 2008, as a charitable foundation, we have always been there for families in difficult life situations. If earlier our focus was on families struggling with childhood cancer, now we cannot stay away from families in need of support due to Russia's military aggression in Ukraine. As before, we not only "put out fires" but also do our best to prevent them. The new project not only responds to the needs of vulnerable families, but also develops local branches and public unions, strengthening their potential, which will definitely have a positive result not only today, but also tomorrow," says the founder and president of the Zaporuka Charitable Foundation. Natalia Onipko.

The "We Can Do It" project was joined by 6 non-governmental organizationsincluding "Liderka" in Kremenchuk, the union of active women "Vulyk" in Poltava, the charity foundation "Tvoia Opora" in Lviv, and others.

"Zaporuka, together with international partners, has developed a training program for regional organizations to increase their capacity to effectively contribute to humanitarian planning, response and assistance. One of the first trainings was devoted to a gender approach to project management.

All events and news within the We Can Do It project will be covered on the pages of of the Zaporuka Charitable Foundationand on the partners' information platforms. To learn about and join the events, follow the project news.

Information reference 

The United Nations Women's Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) - is the only global mechanism created exclusively to support women's participation in peace and security building and humanitarian assistance.

Managed by a range of civil society, government and UN actors, WPHF is a multi-partner trust fund that mobilizes urgently needed funding for local women-led organizations and works with women on the frontlines to build lasting peace.

WPHF has provided funding and capacity building to more than 500 local civil society organizations working on the Women, Peace and Security agenda and implementing humanitarian activities in 28 crisis-affected countries.

Zaporuka Charitable Foundation For 15 years, the foundation has been supporting families of seriously ill children and creating conditions for families to be together during treatment. Since 2009, the foundation has provided free accommodation for at the Dacha Center 1300 children patients of the National Cancer Institute and Okhmatdyt in Kyiv.

Main activities of Zaporuka during the war:

• evacuation of the wards to relatively safe Ukrainian clinics and abroad, their financial and psychological support;
• Providing Ukrainian hospitals (national, regional, and frontline) with medicines, equipment, ambulances, and specialists;
• creation and support of rehabilitation spaces;
• reconstruction of housing for families who lost their homes in the war, psychological support and humanitarian aid to communities that have taken in IDPs.