On July 25, Halyna Skipalska, Country Director of HealthRight Ukraine and Executive Director of the Ukrainian Foundation for Public Health (UFPH), spoke about her personal experience during the war and HealthRight’s commitment to supporting internally displaced people within the country. Halyna described the feelings of shock and grief when the Russian invasion upended lives across Ukraine, but she also emphasized the resilience of the Ukrainian people as they came together to defend their home and support each other.
HealthRight/UFPH is among a handful of NGOs that continue to support marginalized populations and survivors of war within Ukraine, leveraging our past experience after the 2014 conflict. In the past 5 months, we have doubled our staff in Ukraine and expanded our services to better address the fallout of the war, serving over 100,000 Ukrainians.
These services include the provision of basic humanitarian assistance, safe spaces for women and children (shelters and day centers), and a web-based platform for adolescents in crisis called SupportMe. Mental health is a growing challenge facing Ukrainians during the conflict. In response, HealthRight/UFPH launched 50 crisis mobile teams to provide immediate psychosocial care and the SafeWomen Hub to provide remote crisis counseling for women survivors of violence. When asked how the teams get in touch with their clients, Halyna responded, “We don’t sit and wait for clients to come to us. We go out and try to find people who need support.”
“We were amazed and humbled by the outpouring of support for Ukraine – both from the Ukrainian diaspora in New York and friends of Ukraine… I would like to extend my deep appreciation to everyone that stands with Ukraine to this day…for providing support to the Ukrainian people to cope with war and its outcomes.” – Halyna Skipalska
We’d like to thank the Ukrainian Institute of America, the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America, Keuka Kafe, and Steve Hart for their contributions to make this event successful.
