Supporting Mothers on the Path to Self-Sufficiency

46 women received training and support to build self-reliance through our six-month “Support is Near” project. The women and their 135 children can be more secure, as mothers gain confidence, defend their rights and become financially independent. Besides new skills, some of the great outcomes of the project are that seven women found employment, two women were helped to apply for social benefits and one woman opened her own business.

Activities in the "Support is Near" project included:

• 15 training sessions: Financial Literacy, Labour Rights, Starting Your Own Business, Access to Social Benefits, Alternatives to Violence and Effective Communication;
• 160 individual consultations with a social worker;
• 15 consultations with a psychologist;
• Telegram support group to share useful information: such as activities and events for children, links to free education, mental health courses and grant programs.

“Learning about abuse and how to deal with it is important for today’s world. The things I've learned will help me prevent abuse from happening and handle it better if it does occur in the future.” - participant of "Alternatives to Violence" training

“Useful material! We learned how to respond to challenges, how to write a CV and a business plan," - a participant of the Labour Rights and Communications training.

"Participation in the project was useful for me because I learned how to act in difficult situations and learned techniques for coping with stress," adds a participant from Krasne.

The women and their children, who live in Lviv, Krasne and Drohobych communities, had more help to complement the “Support is Near” activities:

• 3 group and 5 individual art therapy sessions, provided with support from DTCare
• 3 women had additional training on starting their own business
• 5 children joined our camp for teenagers “Taking Care of Ourselves”
• “Parenting in Action” journal from Care in Action
• All 135 children received thermal mugs and gloves for Christmas, funded by DTCare
• Aid for children also included: 180 packs of milk, 30 rechargeable lamps, 17 shoes, 50 socks, 15 hygiene kits, and special gift packs from the Kinderbruecke in Marktredwitz.

We would like to thank the Danish Refugee Council for this opportunity to partner in the wider project "Civil Society for Resilience in Ukraine". The project is led by the Danish Red Cross in partnership with the Danish Refugee Council and Dignity, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

We appreciate the input of all the expert trainers who worked with us, and the cooperation with DTCare which makes art therapy available within so many of our projects. 

This is an essential time to be building up resilience and skills in Ukraine. Thank you to every donor, partner and volunteer who helps to make this possible!