Women’s economic empowerment is essential to promoting women’s rights and gender equality. Central to this effort is employment, which not only fosters financial independence but also drives personal growth and achievement.

Viktoria Nazarenko is the Secretary General of the National Assembly of People with Disabilities of Ukraine (NAPD), an association of more than 100 organizations representing people with disabilities from different regions of Ukraine. NAPD works with various UN agencies, including UN Women, to include people with disabilities in humanitarian assistance and advocate for their rights.

Nataliia Onipko is the Founder and President of the Zaporuka Foundation that helps children with cancer and their families. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Foundation has expanded its operations to provide humanitarian assistance to vulnerable internally displaced people, including women, and their host communities.

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.