The Ukrainian feminist and women’s rights activist Yuliya Sporysh is to receive the Anne Klein Women’s Award 2024.
The Ukrainian feminist and women’s rights activist Yuliya Sporysh is to receive the Anne Klein Women’s Award 2024. A sociologist by training, Yuliya Sporysh founded the non-governmental organisation "Girls" in Kyiv in 2019, initially with the aim of promoting sexual education and the prevention of gender-based violence. She continues to head this organisation today. The Russian invasion of Ukraine brought with it a multiplicity of new tasks – a challenge to which Yuliya Sporysh rose superbly.
Statement of the Jury
"Girls" is one of the largest and most important Ukrainian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the areas of women’s rights and self-empowerment, reproductive rights and girls’ and women’s health, and preventing and combatting violence against women. Yuliya Sporysh is the head and founder of "Girls". In the wake of 24 February 2022, "Girls" took on an additional role, becoming one of the leading organisations providing humanitarian aid to the groups that are at greatest risk – women, children and older persons. And this includes both internally displaced people and people living in the initially occupied region around Kyiv – one need only mention Bucha and Irpin to call to mind the horrors that took place there.
Today, the NGO is engaged in a diverse range of humanitarian aid projects that support women and children in Ukraine and which are funded by a wide variety of sources, including UNICEF, ActionAid, the aid organisation “Help - Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe”, the Global Fund for Children, Plan International and Terre des hommes. In one project, for instance, the NGO’s large team of psychologists support younger children, older girls and women who have been traumatised by the war. "Girls" also provides women and girls with accommodation and safe places, as well as with legal aid. In addition, the organisation actively supports survivors of gender-based violence and is working within the network that is attempting to identify perpetrators and bring them to justice.
Last year alone, "Girls" was able to support 150,000 people in over 120 locations throughout Ukraine. During the war, the number of people on the NGO’s team increased tenfold, and 99% of them are women who were also trained by "Girls". The organisation intentionally hires internally displaced women to work in its projects, as a way of providing them with economic prospects as teachers, carers and coordinators. "Girls" offers courses in English and computer skills as well as other training courses both to displaced women and to other women, to enable them to earn a living to support themselves and their families.
The Anne Klein Women’s Award jury is particularly impressed by the perseverance with which Yuliya Sporysh and members of the NGO "Girls", even in wartime, continue to strive to increase the visibility of women in society, for more leadership roles for women, and to overcome stereotypes. To strengthen other women, smaller NGOs and grassroots initiatives, Yuliya is very active within the Ukrainian women’s movement, networking and promoting an atmosphere of respect and appreciation. Thus, she is increasing the visibility and the formative power of Ukrainian women in general – not only through the exchange of knowledge and by mentoring but also within the framework of partnerships and by channelling funding to their projects and assisting with project implementation.
In the view of the jury, Yuliya Sporysh has also distinguished herself through her engagement on behalf of a feminist post-war order in Ukraine and in support of a gender-sensitive approach to the country’s reconstruction, an engagement which is underpinned by a firm belief in a better future. She regularly speaks at national and international conferences, where she emphasises the importance of ensuring that women are involved in reconstruction (e. g. at the UN Women conference in New York in March of this year or the Women Deliver 2023 Conference in Rwanda).
Within Ukraine itself, she is a member of the steering committee of the Humanitarian NGO Platform in Ukraine. The primary aim of this platform is to amplify the voices of representatives of Ukrainian civil society and prevent corruption, to ensure that international financial aid allocated to Ukraine is distributed and used as efficiently and fairly as possible.
Contact
Ulrike Cichon
E-Mail: cichon@boell.de
Fon: +49 30 285 34-112
