A new podcast series from UN Women and The Hague Humanity Hub
Holosy (‘voices’ in Ukrainian) is a new podcast series put together in partnership between UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia and The Hague Humanity Hub to look at the Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent war through a gender lens.
Over four episodes, we’ll explore with a wide range of experts and activists from across the academic, humanitarian, and diplomatic spheres the gender dimensions of the crisis. From leveraging women’s humanitarian diplomatic efforts and examining the specific needs of internally-displaced LGBTQIA+ community to highlighting inspiring stories of women entrepreneurs building digital businesses in wartime, the series will shed light on the shifting gender dynamics of the crisis and women’s vital role in peacebuilding and recovery.
Join us for a four-part series to dive into the gender transformative change taking place in the midst of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and how it will affect the country’s future.
Steliana Rudco (27) is a human rights activist, from Republic of Moldova. Professionally, she is administrating the first Community Center in Republic of Moldova, for women, children and youth from local communities, Ukrainian citizens in temporary displaced in Moldova, and representatives of all minorities in Moldova. Her activism in crisis management started in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemics. She is the co-founder of the “Against COVID-19 Initiative”, as a volunteer she managed over 500 volunteer into helping vulnerable people all over the country to receive humanitarian help, and build strong communities to support each other during pandemics and after. In 2022, she became the co-founder of the Moldova for Peace Initiative, the first refugee response initiative in Moldova. When the full scale war started in Ukraine, she and other 20 volunteers build the national refugee crisis response strategy for the government and civil society. She is still working in the humanitarian aid and trying to build integration programs and capacity (re)building projects for the local communities and for the marginalized and/or disadvantaged groups. As a member of the LGBTQI+ community, in 2023 together with 4 other organizations she became a co-founder of the first LGBTQI+ platform in Moldova, to protect, promote and advocate for the communities rights and freedoms.
Rina Rybalko is an activist from Ukraine. She believes in human rights and the need for an active position and work of public organizations; as an International Relations and Public Communications student, she participated in projects related to the mainstreaming and protection of human rights in a youth NGO in her hometown Dnipro.
Vitaliy Zaharchuk (he/him) is based in Odesa, Ukraine and serves as the LGBTIQ inclusion advisor for Ukraine for Outright International, ensuring that the LGBTIQ community is inclusively represented in humanitarian response efforts in Ukraine.
Sabine Freizer Gunes has over 25 years of policy and programming experience in good governance, gender equality, human rights, civil society development and conflict prevention and resolution. Until February 2023, she was the Chief of UN Women’s Leadership and Governance Section, a post she held since August 2019. As Chief, she supervised a team working to ensure women and girls’ participation in decision making and that they benefit from gender responsive governance. Sabine previously spent four years in UN Women’s Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia where she served as a Policy Advisor on Governance, Peace, Security, as well as acting head of office in Turkey and Albania.
Nina Levchuk is the co-founder of Impact Force, a pioneering Ukrainian women-led non-profit organization that focuses on social behavioural change and fosters economic opportunities. Nina is also the founder of United for Ukraine, an initiative dedicated to addressing Ukraine’s imminent needs for emergency relief as part of IRC Signpost. Nina holds a prominent position as the Startup and Venture Capital Lead at Google Germany and she has been recognized as a Top Innovator by World Economic Forum, highlighting her contributions to solving social challenges.
Oksana Hunko is a journalist for the online publication Novakahovka.city in the occupied city of Novo Kahovka in Ukraine. She is the author of the “InfoSluh” project, a community for parents of hearing-impaired children. Being the mother of a boy with hearing impairment and autism spectrum disorder, Oksana wants to package her experience into informational products for families with disabled children. The “Dream and Achieve” project provides her with support, allowing her to see various models and examples of how women who have found themselves in different life situations due to the war are moving forward, rebuilding their lives, and helping others to not lose hope.
