Mom's Monday

Because of the war in Ukraine, almost every Ukrainian woman is experiencing anxiety and PTSD symptoms that reflect on their sexual and reproductive health. Of the most vulnerable groups – young women and mothers, who are responsible for themselves and their children. Most women have husbands in the army, which significantly worsens their psychological state and requires a broader area of responsibility and complex decision-making. 

We surveyed nearly 2,000 mothers to identify the primary needs of women today. Almost half of the respondents do not receive childcare help, so they have no free time, while 30% of women receive such assistance from time to time, meaning they have limited conditions for studying and working. Every 10th woman is prevented from giving birth by her psychological state. 

Most mothers (about 90%) are living with worsening psychological and reproductive health. One in five has questions about gynecology and sexual health. 

Every second survey participant said that she was interested in projects about psychological and reproductive health, employment, and/or business. 

In summary, we can say that Ukrainian women have requested psychological support, awareness of reproductive health and sexuality education, and consultations on starting their businesses. 

Based on the survey results, we created a unique «Mom's Monday» project to support mothers and young women in Ukraine in partnership with the NGO Generation of Mothers Lada.

Mom's Monday is a free recovery and educational offline meeting for mothers with small children that takes place twice a month. In today's environment, live communication is essential. Together with our partners, we are actively responding to the challenges of nowadays and supporting mothers to fulfill their energy and inspiration, to give an opportunity to meet like-minded people, to get new helpful information, to gain and share experiences, and to relax.

While the mother attends the lectures, her child plays in the game zone under the careful and professional supervision of the babysitters.

The program structure is: 

 1. Psychological session

 2. Professional realization

 Coffee break

 3. Body practice  

 4. Sexual education and reproductive health

In the past, Ukrainian women gathered every Monday to recharge their energy and knowledge by sharing their experiences with each other. They treated this day as a break from their everyday family responsibilities and household tasks. Even today, some women from central and western Ukraine recall their grandmothers' tales of the Monday gatherings.

During times of war, recovery meetings become even more important for renewing the mental, sexual, and reproductive health of women. The revival of these traditions can also have a positive impact on cultural processes in Ukraine. Our project aims to meet the needs of women and mothers by incorporating both traditional and innovative approaches.

Modern programs for mothers provide comprehensive solutions for today`s issues: 

 • mental health support; 

 • reproductive health and sex education;

 • self-realization;

 • a program for children with babysitters.

Olena Pinchuk Foundation has 20 years of experience in charity work, focusing on combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ukraine, sexual education and reproductive health, and support of women in their professional fulfillment and economic independence. Olena Pinchuk herself challenges gender roles and proves women's societal impact.

Several gender studies have shown that women in Ukraine are discriminated against regarding pay, access to resources, and opportunities.

69% of men in Ukraine believe that running a household is a form of self-realization, just like having a job (United Nations Fund for Population Activities in Ukraine).

Only 14% of Ukrainian women have the appropriate education and qualifications to compete with men for top positions when looking for a job.

76% believe that it is men who head families (Analytical Centre RATING Pro).

59% of Ukrainians believe that childcare is the responsibility of women.

Only 22% of Ukrainian men are ready to share household duties with a woman (Project of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities in Ukraine).

Considering this data we may conclude young women and mothers lack time and opportunities to care about their mental and reproductive health, to build their professional path, having been responsible for household and childcare. Besides that mothers are the first communication point on sexual education to their kids. It is extremely important to build a responsible attitude toward sexual and reproductive health to transfer these patterns to the next generation. 

Our duty is to create new opportunities for women and to assist them in all challenges they face in war time.  

The project was launched in February 2023 and held twice a month. Between February and October, 18 events were held, attended by 1300 mothers and 1000 children

This project is new and unique to Ukraine, because not everyone will agree and take the risk of change in wartime, our future is clouded, but we are trying to plan and make this project a part of Ukrainian women's lives and live through such difficult times together. Our approach is to create a friendly and family atmosphere at the events so that everyone feels comfortable and supported. There are no strangers for us, everyone who participates in Mom's Monday events becomes our friend and part of a large community of mothers and young women. 

In such a foggy and difficult time, it is difficult to set goals for a month ahead, and it is difficult to think about a year or 5 years, but we can say that we have permanent goals to support HIV-infected people, spread sexual education and culture in Ukraine among the population, especially schoolchildren and women, support women at the front and professional realisation of women in the rear. We also actively respond to today's challenges, which makes us relevant and useful to society.

Starting from the development of the Mom's Monday project plan, we focused on reaching 200 mothers a month, and we are succeeding. We can judge the usefulness of our project solely on the basis of participant feedback and quality indicators. I can give you an example: a participant of one event got a job at the NGO Generation of mothers Lada, and our psychologists who give lectures at the events note that many women come for consultations and start therapy, which indicates personal growth of the women. In the previous paragraphs, we have determined that in Ukrainian society, it is mainly the mother who is responsible for raising children and, as a result, has an extremely large influence on the child. We can say that the healthier a woman is mentally, the happier and more mentally untraumatised her child will grow up. And taking care of the future generation is extremely important, because they will restore and improve our country and the whole world. Therefore, we influence the future of the country and the world through mothers.

• Each event is organised by 3 managers.
• According to the plan, 4 lecturers were invited to deliver lectures at the event: a psychologist, a body therapist, a businesswoman and a sexologist.
• On the day of the event, there is a manager, an administrator and 2 coordinators.

At all, 11 members of both teams involved to the work. 

We started thinking about the project in September 2022. In October 2022, a survey was conducted to identify women's current problems, and in December 2022, a project plan was developed. The first event took place in February 2023. So in total, we worked on the project for 3 months.

Our immediate leader is the owner of the foundation, Olena Pinchuk. It is her ideas that we bring to life and in creative synergy we generate and translate ideas into goals that become our reality. Elena actively supports women in Ukraine and proves by her own example that a woman is not only a wife or a housewife, but an agent of change in society. Thus, she gives publicity to the problems of our time and destroys stereotypes. This woman always keeps up with the times and follows modern trends.

Looking at the current trends, Ukraine has come very close to European countries in terms of inclusiveness. Back in 2019, the Foundation of the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska set out to remove barriers to business, create conditions for employment and comfortable work for people with disabilities, citizens of all ages and genders. Their projects have given great publicity to inclusiveness and its importance in the modern world. For our part, we are also actively involved and contribute to the initiatives and European integration of Ukrainian society. We understand that the war will make adjustments to people's lives. Many people who suffered from shelling or were on the front line are left without limbs and confined to wheelchairs. Our office is equipped as much as possible for people with disabilities to make their stay at our events or work in the office comfortable and safe. And most importantly, we have a modern and tolerant team that will always help and accept everyone, regardless of stereotypes. 

The Olena Pinchuk Foundation and the NGO "Seeing with the Heart" are also launching a unique project for Ukraine, "Sexuality Education for Children with Mental Disabilities". This is a sexuality education programme for professionals working with children with mental disabilities. The Olena Pinchuk Foundation has many years of experience in the field of sexuality education. That is why we are launching a joint programme with the NGO "Seeing with the Heart", which creates programmes and projects for the socialisation of children/adolescents with disabilities and radically changes society's perception of their lives. Together we will train professionals in the latest approaches to sexuality education. And they, in turn, will work with parents of children with mental disabilities and adolescents themselves with ASD (autism spectrum disorders or autism), PBD (mental retardation), DCD (delayed speech development), Down syndrome, epilepsy, allia, dyslexia, organic lesions of the central nervous system, dementia, etc.

Olena Pinchuk Foundation is one of the key stakeholders in Ukraine that has a 20-year-old history of fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic and helping those who are affected. 

People living with HIV/AIDS very often face the problem of life and death: the required treatment and some tests are usually unavailable for them. In this case the Foundation makes the decision to support these people. Most people living with HIV/AIDS unable to pay for treatment and support the health at their own account. Certainly, the government supports these people but mostly the support of the Foundation was a single hope for people applied for help to Elena Pinchuk as the founder of ANTIAIDS Foundation. For many people, who turned for our help, life is continuing. Some of them got back to work; kids are back to school; mothers are with their families again. We can not tell their names due to clear reasons, but we're happy to strengthen their health, prolong their lives and to know them better. 

Over time, with our help, Ukraine has managed to overcome the HIV/AIDS epidemic and we have set new goals for our work: to work with young people and their parents to promote sex education in Ukraine. In 2019, the Olena Pinchuk Foundation opened the Dialog Hub in Kyiv, a space for free conversations. The educational centre is located at 43 Volodymyrska Street in Kyiv. It hosts lectures and trainings on topics of interest to teenagers and their parents, such as self-development, sexuality education, cyber security on the Internet, etc. The Dialog Hub offers testing for HIV, hepatitis B and C, and syphilis. There is also a trust office from the Kyiv City AIDS Centre, where anyone can take a rapid HIV test in just 15 minutes.

The project model and its outcomes demonstrate efficiency, effectiveness and success over the life of the project, which will enable it to attract other donors. In addition, the project is flexible enough to be easily adapted for other cities or expanded.