“Now There Will Be a Movement Here”

We are relaunching the branch in Lviv to support women veterans and active servicewomen of the city and the region

The goal of the project is to unite active servicewomen and women veterans of the city and region around the branch, to inform them that there is now a place in Lviv where they are awaited, understood, and always ready to support their ideas and projects. The branch itself will become an autonomous space of resilience, support, development, and realization of the leadership potential of servicewomen.

The campaign “There Will Be a Movement Here” is intended to find new leaders and members of the community, therefore the key communication messages are: “Now There Will Be a Movement Here,” “Sisters in Arms,” “Your Own Are Nearby,” “Your People Are Here.” The focus of the project, whose materials can be seen on the streets of Lviv, is photographs of participants of the VETERANKA movement, servicewomen with combat experience. The culmination of the relaunch will be the official reopening of the branch at the end of May this year. The event will bring together sisters-in-arms, the civic sector, representatives of the city, and businesses friendly to veterans and women veterans.

Lviv VETERANKA is transforming into a multifunctional hub that will be based on the principle of “one of our own for one of our own.” The key areas of work include: rehabilitation support, group therapy, educational opportunities, and mentorship. As well as the creation of a platform for cooperation with women business leaders and the development of veteran entrepreneurship.

“We see the Lviv branch as a place of trust, where a woman veteran not only receives help, but becomes a subject of change herself. Our mission is to build a professional army and an inclusive society through women’s leadership, where service experience becomes a springboard for career growth and economic independence. We want to create not simply a representative office, but a full-fledged hub of partners, where the values of equality and development are embodied in diverse collaborative projects,” notes the head of the VETERANKA movement, combat medic Kateryna Pryimak.

One of the priority directions for the near future is to survey servicewomen and women veterans of the region regarding their most urgent needs, to identify gaps in support at the city level that are not being addressed by other NGOs and foundations. This is the first necessary step in order to unite the business community and the city around the Movement’s sisters-in-arms and veterans, and to move toward sustainable projects aimed at protecting the rights and dignity of military personnel and veterans. The organization also assumes the role of an educational center that dismantles stereotypes about “women’s roles” and protects the dignity of servicewomen. The communication of the branch will be based on a trauma-informed approach and networking, guaranteeing each participant quality support from the moment of request to its resolution.

“For me, the branch in Lviv is about people who know how to hold one another’s hand even after everything they have gone through. More than anything, I want the activities of the VETERANKA movement to create a sense of home, trust, and strength, where women veterans can feel heard, needed, and truly among their own,” says Tetiana Buhai, a veteran and sister-in-arms of the VETERANKA movement.

The full list of strategic projects will be presented based on the results of the ongoing research. It consists of two parts: mapping services for veterans, with an emphasis on gender sensitivity, in Lviv and the region, and surveying veterans about their needs. Therefore, the organization calls on active military personnel, veterans, and women veterans to participate in the survey via the following link: https://forms.gle/ktSsimYwMTEDS8AT9

This publication was prepared with the financial support of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the VETERANKA movement and do not necessarily reflect the position of the German Marshall Fund.