Annual Report 2025: Our Year in Stories and Numbers

Key Updates on Sex Education Work

Training at a school in Byshiv (Lviv region).
A school from the village of Byshiv approached us with a request to conduct a training — the initiative came from the school principal’s son, an active-duty soldier. As a result, we organized and conducted a training for students in grades 9–11. 

Event for students of Lviv Polytechnic
A university student project invited us to participate as speakers. The event went really well — we’ll be sharing feedback soon.

Discussion on menstrual health
The organization Zero Waste Lviv invited us to join a discussion as representatives of the civic sector working with sex education. The topic was menstrual health, with participants from the private, civil, and medical sectors.

Certification of sex education trainers
In September, two of our trainers — Liubov Kolomieiets and Kateryna Tsarenko — completed training with the NGO Divchata and received official certification under a program approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

Liubov Kolomieiets, Trainer

“Advocating for teenagers’ needs is a vast field of work. Right now, we focus on sexual health and safety, because we believe every child and teenager has the right to knowledge that helps them feel confident, safe, and heard.

Working with children, teenagers, and youth always inspires me with a sense of authenticity. After every event, meeting, or conversation, you leave with a mix of emotions — and the participants leave with their own.

What I remember most is when, after our school lessons, children ask when we’ll come back. And what’s especially valuable is that they might sit quietly the whole time, even pretend not to listen, and then at the end simply come up and say, ‘You’re great!’ or a simple ‘Thank you.’

Of course, it’s inspiring to see change and growth among children and teenagers: how more and more topics lose their taboo status, how they become more open, sincere, and brave in expressing their thoughts. This is what gives faith in our society and its future.”

Stasia, Trainer

“One of the most pleasant moments in working on the project was seeing communities themselves show interest in our trainings. The story with the school in Byshiv (Lviv region, Radekhiv area) stands out in particular. The school principal found us through the social media of the NGO Feminist Workshop and offered to conduct trainings for their students.

This wasn’t a ‘cold call’ — it was a genuine request from an educational community that understood the importance of the topics we work on.

Such requests show that there is a real need in communities for quality sex education, as well as education on personal boundaries, relationships, and preventing violence. When schools themselves seek opportunities for cooperation, it’s a sign that we’re moving in the right direction and creating a product that resonates with the real needs of educators. Working with the Byshiv school became an example of how organically partnerships can develop when they’re based on genuine interest and shared values.”

— School student, training participant

Media Team

Oleksandra Ivon, SMM Specialist

“I truly admire our readers. They always give us food for thought and inspire new topics to cover — topics that still need visibility, that remain problematic and relevant.

Beyond systematic work, we communicate with our audience, search together for new approaches and opportunities for interaction, for meeting the community’s needs, and for developing feminism in Ukraine — and that is incredibly valuable.

Media campaigns on sex education (the most successful ones reached over 200K views) and on violence, particularly gender-based violence, showed strong public resonance. This means that there is still a lot — a lot — of work ahead for me as a communications specialist and as an activist. Step by step, we’ll keep changing the situation for the better, each of us at our own level.”

Crisis Response Unit

Key Updates

• The crisis focus shifted from emergency response to supporting integration and adaptation, bringing in new partners.
• A joint project with the medical association Unbroken was implemented to support women from military families, focusing on support, medical care, and psychological rehabilitation.
• Organization member Kateryna Dovbnia founded the charitable foundation “One for Another”, aimed at supporting vulnerable groups of women and developing social services.
• Member Nastia Zhabka continues to support the community of older women and works on issues of aging and the visibility of older women.

A study on digital literacy among older women was conducted.

Kateryna Dovbnia (Crisis Response, “One for Another” Foundation)

“We’ve already implemented a joint project with the medical association Unbroken to support women from military families who are undergoing or have completed rehabilitation. This initiative combines women’s mutual support, a feminist lens, and a comprehensive medical and rehabilitation approach.

We’re grateful to our partners for caring not only about medical assistance itself, but also about patients’ well-being and support for their families. We’re always happy to help with initiatives like this.

We thank Feminist Workshop for the resource support. The foundation is currently at an early stage, but we believe that 2026 will be productive and will become the year of our first fully implemented project.”

Volunteering

Liubov Pankevych

“I’m happy to see the development of volunteering within Feminist Workshop and that many of our volunteers are regular participants in our events. I hope we’ll build a comfortable and fruitful collaboration and together grow a proactive, strong community of women*, queer people, and allies.”

The Entire Feminist Workshop Team

Alla Solod (on the CAFI international meeting in Dakar)

“As part of the CAFI network, I advocated to international actors for recognizing the expertise and financial support of local women’s and feminist organizations working on GBV, especially in the context of war and funding crises.

At the same time, it was important for me to more deeply study the experiences of countries of the Global South with histories of colonization, and to learn how to explain the Ukrainian context to representatives from African countries, considering shared challenges, the impact of imperialism, and disinformation.

Personal communication with colleagues from Nigeria, Senegal, the DRC, and Mali became an important step toward building dialogue and finding alliances within a shared decolonial struggle.”

By the way, on April 15 we held an online community event on international advocacy:
“An Honest Conversation: About the UN, New York, and the Challenges of International Advocacy.”

Speakers:

• Olha Yashchenko, Head of Feminist Workshop
• Oksana Potapova, Advisor at Urgent Action Fund
• Olha Kostina, Leader of Rivni u Kryvomu
• Halyna Kotliuk, Coordinator of the Gender Democracy Program, Heinrich Böll Foundation

Olha Yashchenko, Head of Feminist Workshop, on International Work

“Our rule is to take, not wait until we’re given. We must tirelessly look for approaches, prepare our talking points in advance, practice English, take the floor and the space, amplify the voices of Ukrainian feminists, and remind the world about the war and Ukraine’s needs. If we don’t do this, others will decide for us — and that’s not what we need.”

Looking Back

2025 was an incredibly eventful year. We learned together, gathered for board games and entertainment events where we talked, met each other, and found warm support in one another. Together, we fought for and defended the right to safety, respect, and equality for all citizens of our country.

We are grateful to all of you who were with us — at events, street actions, and marches — and to colleagues from various organizations who helped amplify important messages through visibility, informational materials, and joint activities. Our shared work is a small but meaningful step toward an open, fully inclusive society where every person deserves support and respect.

 

So let the year ahead be full of determination and courage, effort and attempts, small and big victories along the way.
The brave are the lucky ones — so let’s keep fighting for that luck together.