Many of you have asked if you can donate instead of or in addition to coming to our benefit event, “Resistance: A Speakeasy in Support of Women in Ukraine” (March 28 7pm at St Volodymyr Institute, 620 Spadina). Well, yes, you can!
Your donation will support women in Ukraine displaced by war. Russia’s devastating invasion of Ukraine has been raging 3 years and counting; the largest and deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. With cuts to humanitarian and lethal aid, challenges facing Ukrainians are greater than ever.
We are supporting the Ukrainian women's group, Democracy Development Centre (DDC), which has shown great perseverance, courage and ingenuity helping women and their families evacuate from Russian occupation, often in seemingly impossible situations: destroyed infrastructure, bombed homes, and lack of potable water.
We are working with DDC to raise funds to renovate a shelter in a village in western Ukraine for women displaced by the war. The shelter houses about 25 women, some with their children and parents, who have fled Russian occupation in the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Ukrainians who remain in occupied territories face torture, deportation to Russia, and death. Funds raised will go toward renovations of the former office building where the shelter is located and other services for displaced women.
