A joint monitoring visit of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights and UN Women in Ukraine took place last week in Odesa oblast. The purpose of the visit was to monitor the observance of human rights and the status of meeting the needs of different social groups in the context of the war and the recovery of Ukraine.

Olesya Bozhko is the head of "Space of Knowledge", a Ukrainian NGO helping children to receive high-quality free education and supporting women educators who lost their jobs due to the war. Bozhko is one of 17 women activists and civil society organizations (CSO) representatives working with vulnerable women’s groups, who participated in UN Women’s She Media School, a capacity building project aimed at improving women’s representation in the media. As the war in Ukraine reaches its one-year anniversary, it is essential to highlight women’s voices, particularly of those working to uphold women’s rights.

Anastasia Perepylytsia, 44, is no stranger to displacement. In 2014, she had a stable job in finance and lived a normal life together with her husband and two children in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. But when the Russian army invaded her hometown, she had to flee with her family to Zaporizhzhia, a city situated on the banks of the Dnieper River in the south-east.

Nina Cherlenuk is one of the millions of Ukrainians who have been forced to leave their homes since the beginning of the war in February. For women, a new city or country often means career changes – a new workplace, a new company, or an entirely new profession. However, in the context of war, the transition tends to be more complex.