On the car ride there, a colleague from her school got in touch to tell her about the house in Zakopane. We thank our partners at VOICE for this extensive look at the effects Russias invasion of Ukraine is having on women and girls throughout the region, said Rachel Levitan, HIAS Vice President for International Policy and Relations. Her death sparked widespread women-led protests across the majority-Catholic country and strengthened its pro-choice movement. The war is merely the latest episode in the series of misfortunes that have plagued her. I missed him a lot. Two floors below the Sydors lives Anna Karpovna Polachek, 80, who everyone affectionately calls babka, or grandmother. From time to time, one of the children picks her up and gives her a cuddle. Over the last month, she has met with other women in Warsaw who approached her for counselling. When they realised that I was quite good at it, they referred me to other people they knew, she says. The team gathered evidence of sexual exploitation and trafficking, exploitative labor, failed cash assistance programs, and widespread discrimination against already marginalized groups. Now, some of our neighbours who heard about what were doing are also opening their homes to refugees. I love Ukraine, I really do.. This service will vet eligibility, assess needs, and provide training for sponsors to ensure they can support the people they host., Asked to confirm or deny whether there had been a complaint that Gove had bullied staff, the spokesperson added: Humanitarian schemes set up in record time by the Home Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities working closely together are helping thousands of Ukrainians find safety in the UK., Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. It took another day to get to the house, with the help of volunteer drivers in Krakow. After Marharyta was born, she turned her interest in cosmetology into a side gig, opening a small clinic where she offered skincare treatments. Abortions even in cases of severe fetal abnormalities, which had formed the majority of legal terminations before then, were no longer permitted. Their husband may have died, or its just a difficult time to have a baby, she says. And as for Putin, Im sure ordinary citizens are scared of him after years of totalitarianism. After a failed attempt to move to Belarus, Lesya and Anatoly heard about the tiny village of Buda, where there was a house cheaply available. Her own experience has allowed her to connect powerfully with the women. In the adjacent kitchen, dinner is being prepared by Monika; the scent of buttery mashed potatoes wafts into the room. Her family is from Luhansk, now one of the countrys most embattled regions, ripped apart by war since 2014. I cant believe I have to move even though I am already so old, she says melancholically. Polish people have been really kind to us, but even then, they cant fully understand whats going on, because it hasnt happened to them. I try not to cry. Some of my classmates did get to go home on Sunday. We were just doing well enough to hire four other workers, she says. She could barely make ends meet, and her ex-husband Lyudmilas father was himself a heavy drinker. We were just 50km (31 miles) away from where some of the fighting was taking place, she says. Lyudmila and her husband ran a company supplying building materials to businesses and individuals in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil. Under the governments Homes for Ukraine scheme, British hosts must link up with Ukrainian refugees themselves, leaving tens of thousands of people to resort to unregulated social media groups to connect. But we managed to do it all in secret, says Kacpura.

Anna sobs uncontrollably when she talks about her 28-year-old grandson, Sergiy, who has epilepsy and schizophrenia, and lives in a facility for people with a mental illness in Ukraine. For two decades, she and Anatoly grew crops and reared their own animals for food, occasionally hunting for additional meat. Now their plans have been thwarted. Iryna made up her mind to leave Ukraine on March 4 when she saw footage of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant the largest in Europe being attacked by Russia. Kacpura sent them to a clinic in Warsaw where they were tested for HIV and given medication as as a prophylactic against other sexually transmitted diseases before moving on to France to rejoin their families. Another Benedictine monk offered to drive all of them including Diana and her two children to the Polish border. Some men lied about having several bedrooms in their one-bed homes while another proposed sharing a bed, writing: I have a large bed. Aside from her husband, Lyudmila left behind two brothers: 23-year-old Volodymyr, who lives with a disability, and 19-year-old Oleh, who was initially conscripted to join the army but is now on leave. Across three neighbouring homes in a picturesque Polish resort town, a new community of women and children is emerging. But it also bears witness to the talk, the activity, the tragedy and the warmth that collectively form the memories of the three households as they are being made. Federa was able to organize a rare medical abortion for the woman in a Warsaw hospital, using a small exception in the law for cases of rape.

Her oldest sons Daniil, 17, and Kirill, 14, are in Ukraine along with their father, supporting him as he joins the Territorial Defence Forces like millions of other men between the ages of 18 and 60. He was one of 11 children that Monika adopted from orphanages all around Ukraine. We didnt see any bombs falling, but we saw the planes and tanks. She immediately contacted some priests in Poland whom she knew, and they rapidly made arrangements to receive her family. Priti Patel, the home secretary, apologised on Friday for the time it had taken for Ukrainian refugees to arrive in the UK under two visa schemes, after figures showed only 12,000 had so far reached Britain.

In 2020, Poland tightened its already restrictive abortion laws, ruling that pregnancies could be terminated only in cases of incest and rape, and when a mothers life is at risk. But sometimes they need to speak to another human being about what theyve gone through. Together, both of them were able to eke out a more comfortable life for themselves and their daughters. HIAS has a wealth of experience with GBV programming, and its goals align with those of VOICE, as both groups build partnerships with women-led organizations, and strive to keep the input and needs of survivors a priority and incorporate their leadership in program design and implementation. The sounds from the bombing caused a lot of problems with his head, Lyudmila says, alluding to a deteriorating mental health issue. But war crimes are notoriously difficult to investigate and prosecute.

1300 Spring Street, Suite 500Silver Spring, MD 20910301-844-7300. In 2012, Iryna moved to Kyiv for a few years before getting married and settling down in Irpin. Along with two of her daughters, Natalya and Svetlana, Anna made up her mind to leave. ukrainian adaptation strategies institute development global I dont know my room number here, I just go straight in, she says expressionlessly. Ive asked the local kindergarten if I can work there as an assistant, Monika says. Providing police reports for sexual violence is also difficult in any situation, let alone for women raped during wartime in another country. United Nations high commissioner for refugees. Her own future is uncertain. Phone calls and messages to the hotline belonging to the Polish branch of the non-profit Women on Web, which provides abortion pills up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, have shot up by nearly a third. They write to her in Polish, English, Ukrainian, and Russian. There was only one other home in the vicinity. Yeva is just five months old, born shortly before the war. Rosy-cheeked Monika busies herself in the kitchen, preparing borscht and cake in anticipation of many hungry stomachs when the children come home from school. The report notes that in armed conflicts mens violence against women and girls increases rapidly and stays elevated long after the fighting stops. Womens rights organizations throughout the region have been responding to the needs of forcibly-displaced women and girls since the war began, according to the report, and these groups are best-positioned to help. Ive never done anything like this before, Jadniga admits as she pulls a stack of Polish textbooks and worksheets out of her bag to distribute to the eight children who are here for her class. There are no heroes and incredible feats, there are simply people who are busy doing inhumanly human things. I have five siblings with whom I run these guesthouses. There, she worked as a maths teacher in a primary school. I cant teach my children well, so the only thing I can do is give them all the love they deserve.. I started by giving discounts to my friends whenever I cut their hair. Supporting local and national feminist priorities, ranging from legal reforms and political participation to gender mainstreaming in public policies and economic empowerment. There is growing public anger over the length of time that Ukrainians are being forced to wait before being given visas from the Home Office amid the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since the second world war. Another hotline for Ukrainian refugees in Poland, called Martynka, was established in late March and works with Women on Web and German-based organizations. They had been raped early that morning by Russian soldiers at a checkpoint and arrived, so frightened, with no money, no knowledge of English.. The monastery where she lived also provided her with some funding to restore a derelict house in the town of Bilohirya, a short 33km (20 miles) away from the apartment that Diana and Mykhaylo moved to after they got married. At least one Polish pregnant woman has died since the new restrictions came into place. At 4:30pm on Tuesdays, the dining room is a hive of activity. Oleh also has a wife who is pregnant. On the other hand, members of Roman Catholic group Ordo Iuris, meaning Order of Law, an influential non-governmental group against abortion, have been calling hospitals to ensure that they are complying with the strict rules. A government-backed matching service run by the charity Reset offers to match UK hosts with refugees but has been operating for just over a week. Among her scant possessions are her passport, a small cupboard full of medication for high blood pressure, and some wool blankets. For 12 years, she had worked at a hospital where the salaries were poor and the hours were unforgiving; the average monthly salary of physicians in Ukraine is 54,000 hryvnias ($1,800). When I listen to these women, I see myself in their shoes. She was born into chaos, spending her infancy in a trench dug by her mother and a group of other women in an attempt to hide from the Nazis as they invaded Ukraine during WWII. But theyre really strong, and I know theyll manage, she says. The UN refugee agency has called on the UK government to intervene to stop single British men from being matched up with lone Ukrainian women seeking refuge from war because of fears of sexual exploitation. VOICEs 10-member team conducted a 4-week in-person assessment of womens rights organizations, frontline workers, local NGOs, United Nations-affiliated groups, and refugee populations in Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania,Slovakia, and Ukraine. Some of the many specific recommendations from the report include: Providing flexible, multi-year, and unrestricted money to local women-led organizations to fund programming tailored to the specific needs of the women and children fleeing Ukraine, as well as host communities. Sign up for updates and breaking news from HIAS. Next to the billiards table, the women of the house chat over cups of tea. On cold nights, Lesya likes to stand on the balcony and gaze out onto the majestic peaks of the Carpathian range. My role is to help them grow up in a loving family.. Until the war, Monika had been living in this house with Mykhaylos foster siblings. I was thinking of setting up a waste recycling business in our area. Their children attend school in the town centre, which is a short drive away. HIAS provides a helping hand to refugees through our economic inclusion programs. In order for any humanitarian interventions to be effective, they must center the needs of women and girls and the security risks they face, the report said. Girl, you are young, she says. People had been waiting on the platform for hours, only to be told that the trains might not depart because of damage to the tracks caused by shelling. Angelina and Kostya are thrilled by the slanted roof above their beds, and it is a perpetual source of amusement for them. She exudes a resolute calm that is soothing for the women that she meets, but she has not been able herself to process the events of the last few weeks. A wizened woman who is often wrapped in shawls and sweaters, Polachek has been reflecting on the irony of having her childhood and old age marked by carnage. Angelina and Kostya are going to the local school in Zakopane, although there are some teething problems with their foray into the Polish education system. When school finishes for the day, the children excitedly spill into the games room. Its their choice whether or not they want to be in touch with their parents. In the last few weeks, I finally got to explore Warsaw.

Poland has taken the lions share, earning praise from Western powers, even as that generosity has raised uncomfortable questions about its treatment of asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa.

In another picture, she is driving a truck with her 10-month-old son Matviy on her lap and her two-year-old daughter Zlata seated next to her. Along with her husband Mykhaylo, 22, a builder and mechanic, Diana was saving up to buy a bigger house for her expanding family. The report, Waiting for the Sky to Close: The Unprecedented Crisis Facing Women and Girls Fleeing Ukraine, was supported by HIAS and developed by VOICE, a feminist organization dedicated to eradicating gender-based violence (GBV). From Kyiv, Iryna and Nadiya immediately took a train to Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine which, at that point, had been free from heavy bombardment. Her self-possession wavers for a fraction of a second. When it comes to domestic chores, 27-year-old Lyudmila Sydor is like a fish out of water. We could sleep together. Another sent a voice note that said: I am ready to help you and maybe you can help me also.. There, they slept in a hangar that had been repurposed to house refugees before Natalya found a volunteer who directed them to the house in Zakopane. Iryna Melnyk, 40, is in an odd situation. But I think its really important for them to learn Polish, it will make it easier for them to get used to living here, she adds. Their belongings were too cumbersome to lug along, so they abandoned them at the train station. May God bless you, and may you never have to live through this., Svetlana Alexievich, The Unwomanly Face of War, Al Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties & Human Rights. Kacpura recalls how she procured emergency contraception for two girls, aged 16 and 17, who crossed the border into Poland at the beginning of the war. Given our ongoing work to combat gender-based violence affecting refugees around the world, HIAS is proud to support this ground-breaking research, which will help governments and humanitarian organizations alike to mount a more effective response to the exploitation of women and girls.. Conflict is like a curse that has followed 41-year-old Iryna Lipkova for the last 10 years. I really wanted to have somewhere to go, but I didnt know my family, Olha says. By now, ski season is over in the picturesque town of Zakopane in the south of Poland. HIAS is a nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) refugee protection organization based in Silver Spring, MD. It determined that women-led organizations on the frontlines of the emergency response are not getting the support they need to properly assist displaced women and girls, and survivors of conflict-related sexual violence need better access to medical and mental health services and resources. The internat may have a notoriously deplorable reputation in Ukraine, with many such institutions accused of abusing children in their care, but Olha says she was lucky: We got books, sweets, and clothes. When she was eight, she wrote a letter to a particularly benevolent teacher, requesting help in locating her birth parents. This is a record of the stories of several Ukrainian women who have sought refuge at these holiday homes. Since coming to power in 2015, Polands right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS) has repeatedly moved to curb sexual and reproductive health and rights, frequently targeted LGBTQIA+ people, and threatened to abandon domestic violence protection measures for women. The familys room is on the top floor of the house, which is connected to an attic. The report calls on the United Nations, the European Union, philanthropies, host country governments, international NGOs, and local NGOs to implement changes to combat the crisis and meet the immediate needs of women and girls on the frontlines. I could not put my daughters through it, she recalls.

Their parents were alive but were mired in substance abuse or were in a constant state of inebriation meaning that the state often intervened to place these children under its care. Her husband, who is in the Ukrainian army, was fighting and away from home. The house has 16 occupants in total, and 14 are members of Dianas family. We are shocked by the number, says Kacpura, referring to the amount of people seeking Federas help.

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