The educational program “Dream and Achieve” announces the start of applications. The program is aimed at supporting Ukrainian women affected by the full-scale Russian invasion. Participation in the program provides an opportunity to gain the necessary knowledge and skills to create or develop an online business, as well as financial support in the amount of $1,000 upon completion of the program.

Lviv, 27 October 2023 – UN Women facilitated the Women’s Entrepreneurship Satellite Expo 2023 bringing together over 150 participants, particularly established women entrepreneurs from across Ukraine, who are seeking professional growth, as well as self-employed women and women employees seeking new opportunities and collaborations with private companies.

Yuliya Savynska is a 32-year-old confectioner and entrepreneur from eastern Ukraine who, like millions of other Ukrainians, was forced to leave her home and lost her business due to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Julia Pysmenna is the founder of the online platform taker | maker, a web-service that brings together different professionals offering digital content creation on demand for small and medium-sized businesses. Based in Ukraine, the company helps its customers to create photos, videos, text and design for social media, blogs and websites through a database of over 120 high-quality content creators, as well as digital marketers, social media marketing managers and content producers. Pysmenna is one of the women entrepreneurs that have been selected to participate in the Women’s Entrepreneurship EXPO mentorship programme.

Anna Zavertaylo is co-owner of a bakery and a café volunteering to support local people in Kyiv during the Russian invasion.

From 21–22 November, a two-day Women’s Economic Empowerment Congress (WEE Congress) convened more than 100 Ukrainian businesswomen, representatives of the private and public sectors, as well as academics, both in-person in Lviv and broadcast online.

Iryna Zalialova is a police colonel in the Ukraine National Police service. She leads the Department for Monitoring Gender Equality and efforts to combat domestic violence under the Human Rights Compliance Department. Until 2014, Zalialova lived in Horlivka and worked at the Donetsk Law Institute. When pro-Russian militants entered the Donetsk region, Zalialova and her family were forced to flee to Kyiv. Already in the capital of Ukraine, she decided to try out for the National Police: she passed the competition and got a job as a precinct officer.