Widows for Peace interviews Dr Lyudmyla Porokhnyak, President of the National Council of Women of Ukraine
Left to right: Iryna Kurovytska, Susan O’Malley, Dr. Lyudmyla Porokhnyak, Alice Fookes. 13th March 2023.
Widows for Peace Trustee, Alice Fookes, and Susan O’Malley (WPD UN Representative) had the honour of meeting Dr. Lyudmyla Porokhnyak during the 67th Session of the Committee on the Status of Women (CSW67), at Mona Cafe in New York, not far from the UN Headquarters. Also present was Iryna Kurovytska, the Representative of the International Council of Women Ukraine at the United Nations, the former President of the National Council of Women of the USA and the League of Ukrainian Women of America (SUZHA) – and a great friend of Lyudmyla and Susan.
Dr Lyudmyla Porokhnyak is a doctor, president and head of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) – the National Council of Women of Ukraine (partner of Widows for Peace).
The NGO works with rural widows and is currently working with women living in de-occupied villages, creating centres for self-help, mutual support and development.
Lyudmyla supports the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, which was passed in the year 2,000 to provide equal rights for women to participate in peace negotiations, among other demands. Lyudmyla began working with women and girls, pensioners and security forces in Ukrainian regions to design and distribute posters about 1325, showing how it applies to everyday life.
Lyudmyla is vice-president of the European Centre of the International Council of Women (ICW). ICW is a non-governmental organisation that was founded in 1888 with the themes Equality, Development and Peace – concepts which it has consistently followed. She is also author of several publications.
Interview with Dr Lyudmyla Porokhnyak
April 2024
How did you become President of the National Council of Women of Ukraine?
Lyudmyla: In 2014, when the aggression began, it was necessary to unite women with different political views and different social groups. Since I did not belong to any political party, I was chosen as a neutral person. After the large-scale aggression of 2022, my attention was drawn to poetess Zoya Ruzhyn, who wrote 211 poems about the war, and academic Svitlana Sadovenko, who composed music for children and adults for these poems. Both are members of the National Council of Women.
Now I represent 19 different organisations at the Council. Now we have 15,000 volunteers who oppose Russian aggression in various ways.
What is your involvement and expertise in rural and urban widowhood?
Lyudmyla: There are many widows of all types in Ukraine and one cannot talk about one type without the other; men live less long than women. The average age for men in Ukraine is 62 years, for women – 72 years. We have survived a 9 year war and now have maybe up to 20,000 war widows created between 2014-2023.
Do Ukrainian Widows receive any kind of social protection?
Lyudmyla: Yes, the state has programmes, but public widows’ organisations only form in cities across Ukraine – creating “WE TOGETHER” groups.
Lyudmyla in Shestovitsa Chernihiv region.
Sometimes up to two to three hundred widows come together as a group, which means they can lobby for support from the government’s Economic and Social Policy Organisation – a very powerful organisation.
These leading groups of widows in the city have become very strong and are funded, for example, to support three summer camps for children, and we work as a team. All volunteers.
But in rural areas, everything is completely different. There are no collective widows’ groups, community centres or support groups. In cities, internet access is available in most places, which allows for the creation of groups.
I want to tell about the Chernihiv region in the north of Ukraine. This is a place where Russian troops occupied – computers and mobile phones were stolen, and there is no access to the internet, social networks, etc.
So our urban widows’ organisations, which are mostly well organised and can support each other, decided to take one or two computers into the villages and rural communities and try to give advice and support.
How are these rural widows coping especially in areas of direct conflict?
Lyudmyla: They have depression, nervousness, panic attacks.
In eastern Ukraine, they are less likely to leave their villages for cultural reasons and partly because they have less experience or desire to travel.
They are less familiar with the urban cultures of the community and have no experience working in or with groups. These village widows are very territorial – pride gets in the way; they rarely admit that they are victims of violence.
Our urban women go to them under the conditions of interruptions with electricity, heat and water throughout Ukraine, which was caused by the destruction of the infrastructure of Ukraine by Russian troops. In the villages it is warmer, the food is better, the air is better.
Life in cities can be dangerous because of sporadic blackouts, when elevators don’t work, there’s no heat and no water. Often the city’s widows live 20 stories up in a bombed-out building, but will stay behind to support other relatives. They can also be territorial.
Can you give an idea of displacement of women and children in Ukraine?
Lyudmyla: In Ukraine’s internal territories, 7 million women and children have suffered internal displacement.
Can you give personal insight into your own circumstances – is that something you can do safely?
Lyudmyla: I have been a widow for 41 years; my children and grandchildren often visit me. I live in a house 11 miles outside Kyiv.
After February 24th, 12 refugees lived with us.
Russian helicopters flew over our house in the first month of the war, adding to the tension and anxiety.
1 or 2 key actions would you like to see taken on behalf of widows in Ukraine?
Lyudmyla:
Widows should be grouped according to age and the different kinds of widowhood: i) those who died in war ii) husband in hospital iii) those suffering from internal displacement;
We must educate our widows and the government about the various needs of widows and types of widowhood.
Thank you Lyudmyla for sharing with me your passionate and detailed observations with me.
Interview by Alice Fookes, WPD Trustee.
Acknowledgements: Sincere thanks to Lyudmyla Porokhnyak and Iryna Kurovytska for their time and support for the activities of Widows for Peace through Democracy (WPD).
Lyudmyla’s written address to the Widows for Peace CSW67 Parallel Event
Alice Fookes read at the event on behalf of Lyudmyla Porokhnyak (translated by Iryna Kurovytska).
“Dear attendees!
For me, this meeting is very important and significant. I am with you for the first time – with a respectable organisation that I should have joined 41 years ago. But I didn’t know about you then and wrote my the story of my widowhood myself. It was a bitter story, I only now realise how lucky it is to have friends and like-minded people.
Ukraine has been at war for 9 years. During this time, there are thousands of war widows – women of various ages who raise children of various ages in various conditions. But there is one thing in common – they are in pain and they hate war.
Virtually all war widows in Ukraine today are volunteers. This is how they psychologically support the memory of their husbands. The first public organisation of war widows was created in Chernihiv back in 2017. Now there are several of them, the most powerful “WE TOGETHER” has more than a thousand participants.
But the most organised widows live in cities: they meet, support each other, and have the opportunity to participate in psychological and humanitarian aid. Their access to the internet and communication in closed chats plays a big role in this.
In the villages, women more often perceive it [the internet] as informational violence and add it to the list of types of violence experienced by war widows: psychological (related to the breakdown of family relations, she no longer feels the support of her husband – only herself). Often, widows are also subjected to economic violence due to lack of funds – possible loss of housing, property, resettlement within the country or departure with children abroad. But this is not for village widows. As a rule, they stay in the villages and run the farm. Many of them are well-educated; they need communications. And this is their main desire – to find people who understand the depth of their grief, can advise and support.
I thank you for taking us into your community, for your sacrificial work. Special thanks to Margaret Owen for the organisation.”
