The Feminist Workshop, Translation Patrick Le Tréhondat
Our year 2024 has been challenging, interesting, feminist and very, very bright. The warmth and light came from the people who lit our path. And we've tried to radiate back, to give a part of ourselves to each participant in the training courses, workshops and informal events. We hope we succeeded.
We'll tell you more about our year below. In the meantime, make yourself a cup of tea and get comfortable.
Community and events
We're pleased to say that in 2024 we managed to organise a large number of events - 83 events attended by over 1,020 people! Thank you so much for your support and for physically being with us. We really appreciate it!
Let's talk about the events we're particularly proud of.
This year we focused on informal events. We tried to create an inclusive space where everyone would be heard and accepted, where our participants could freely communicate, learn and develop, and learn more about defending human rights, fighting discrimination and how to get involved in activism. We think we've done it!
We were also able to organise a special two-day workshop entitled "Filmmaking is not a (female) profession", aimed at both teenage girls and adults. The workshop was led by Gala Kozyutynska, filmmaker, art director, activist and founder of the What if creative studio in Lviv. The event brought together people keen to discover the secrets of filmmaking and create their own short film, music video or social video.
What a great experience!
We continued to organise full multi-day training courses on the theme of "How to become an activist" for those who dream of setting up their own projects but don't yet know where or how to start. Supporting feminist, environmental and LGBTQ+ activists on their journey has remained one of our priorities over the years.
Events for teenage girls
The Activism Academy for Girls* Coven is a magical event for special people! For two intense days, we talked about activist initiatives and practised 'care'.
For our special audience of teenage girls, we created a new event format - Secret Sisterhood. We talked about relationships, development, identity and self-perception. It was a place where everyone could share their own teenage experiences* and listen to those of others, reflect together on pressing issues and, finally, have a good time. At the end of the year, we had to stop this format, but we may come back to it later.
New/old event formats
Since we've already started talking about new formats, let's continue with another cool event for the community - Fashion Day! In collaboration with Space of things 1 , we organised an event that became an anti-capitalist alternative to fashion events and broke down the stereotypes and norms that limit our freedom of choice and expression.
Another new feature in the life of our organisation is the "Silent Room" reading area. This is a place and time specifically dedicated to concentrating on a book, where there are no musical distractions or conversations.
Let's not forget our community's favourite event: the feminist stand-up "La place d'une femme* est sur scène". This event brings together a group of people who love humour. Our talented comedians tackled important issues with wit, and we had a great time!
We cannot fail to mention a series of events on physical safety and protection, which are particularly relevant to our LGBTIQ+ community. These include training in self-defence and assertiveness using the WenDo method, a workshop entitled "The strength in everyone: psychological self-defence with the WenDo method", as well as a workshop on physical safety and self-defence equipment. Your safety is important to us!
Street actions and festivals
On 10 August, we organised a street action-performance entitled "Menstruation is different, and that's OK", which raised an important issue and took to the streets with artistic posters on the beauty of menstruation.
In addition, as part of the "16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence" campaign, we organised a street action entitled "Violence is not a tradition", during which we highlighted the importance of the issue of violence against women. Around thirty activists took part in the action, and we are delighted that new people are discovering feminism and are ready to join us in the fight against gender inequality.
On 8 December, in collaboration with the Women's March, we organised a feminist evening dedicated to the 140th anniversary of the Ukrainian women's movement. It was an unforgettable evening, very warm and festive - thanks to you, our allies, we have succeeded a important fund-raising for our sisters in the armed forces.
"This year 2024 has been very eventful - we've done a lot, we've brought new people together and we hope to do even more next year. We are grateful to everyone who has supported us: the participants in the event, the allied organisations and, of course, the Feminist Workshop team, which gives us the opportunity to implement such important projects," explains Mariana Zelinska, community coordinator.
"This year, I've combined community work other projects and major changes in my personal life, but despite these complicated factors, I haven't wanted to let go! For me, over and above personal effort, it's also about working as a team, supporting each other at management level and the organisation in general. An important step was saying goodbye to events for teenagers, that precious but heavy stone that has been increasingly difficult to carry over the last few months. My greatest joy of the year has been the appearance of our space, where you can attend events of a more formal and relaxed kind. My favourite events of the year were the Halloween party and Galy Kozioutinski's workshop. And of course, another format events, 'The Silent Room' - because I myself am most productive in these few hours a week," adds Anastasia-Lieb Pankewicz, event organiser at Feminist workshop.
Professional courses
For the team, 2024 began with the implementation of a new project for our organisation. For the first time, we organised retraining and further training courses for women. As part of this project, we examined over 500 applications and supported 22 women by paying for their training.
We believe that an important achievement of this project is the methodology developed for organising these competitions. We plan to organise a competition in 2025 with the support of the Zmin Foundation and the Danish Refugee Council. In this way, 2024 has created a lasting partnership in support of women, which will be our priority for years to come.
The most important event of 2024 is the closure of our refuge!
We're very proud of the crisis team who took responsibility for this work. Speaking of these people, I'd like to recall a quote from a cartoon where one character says to another, "Yeah, I like people who don't care about things like reality the best."
Indeed, we had to find solutions on the fly. There were situations where there was no solution, and the whole team got together for a glass of therapeutic wine and a pizza. We've been to many supervision meetings, where we've cried like crazy and said "no, we're never going back to that shelter". There were times when we got together, hugged each other and told each other how cool we were, that we'd done an incredible job. That's why working in a hostel isn't about living your own human life or that of your family and friends. It's about living the lives of the 20 people who live in our shelter every day: with their problems, their joys. We rejoiced at their successes, we mourned their failures and we were angry when new obstacles appeared... To sum up, I'd like to say that, given the fact that we met these people in such a situation, this work has been marked by a great deal of tenderness and care.
During the operation of the shelter, we provided specific support for women, including help with employment, socialisation, adaptation, volunteering and finding solutions for women with disabilities. For example, one of our residents with a mental disability received the necessary support and was able to become a resident of an adapted housing centre.
In 2025, we plan develop theme of accommodation and rehabilitation, offering support, socialisation, assistance and a return to social life, including for pregnant women. Spoiler: we're already developing a project on and for these people!
Digital courses
As part of this project, we organised training and support events for women of pre-retirement and retirement age in Lviv. In total, we organised 61 events for 60 women. Most of the events were digital literacy training based on a programme developed by our team. This is a course designed to teach the basics of using a smartphone and understanding how applications and programmes work. It is aimed at women with few digital skills. To disseminate information about these courses and other free activities for adult women in Lviv, we created and printed a brochure with the contacts and possibilities of several friendly NGOs. In September and October, we distributed 500 brochures and informed over 500 women about the opportunities available in our city.
We have also organised training courses and informative conferences on subjects of particular interest to older women:
- a nutrition conference for women aged 60 and over,
- a conference on women's health entitled "Doctors in a woman's life".
2 lectures on supporting brain function:
- a conference on dementia,
- a conference on the national "Affordable Medicines" programme.
In addition, there were :
- 2 meetings on effective communication,
- 3 art therapy meetings,
- 2 meetings on the subject of "Which requests to address to a lawyer" from the CF Right to Protection.
As part of the project, we also carried out two sociological studies on digital literacy among women of retirement age. In addition to the positive results of the events, the establishment of a relationship of trust with the participants was an important achievement. Although women of retirement age are generally a rather closed and passive group, we managed to establish communication, discuss their needs frankly and involve them not only as participants, but also as members of the organising team.
In 2025, we want to continue teaching digital literacy, but with a slightly different format. We will continue to teach the use of smartphones in the form of courses with digital coaches, where participants can ask questions and get individual advice. There are requests for specific topics, such as Diia updates, websites for comparing drug prices, etc. There is also strong demand from women for jobs that are not physically demanding, but these jobs often require basic digital skills on the computer.
That's why we want to set up an Active Longevity Club, where we will teach computer skills to women aged between 40 and 60, with an in-depth study of useful computer programmes for employment.
Education
This year, we continued our advocacy work in favour of sex education! Over 290 children and young people attended our free talks on sex education and the fight against gender-based violence. We organised 42 different events, including workshops and talks for different age groups, as well as two training courses for teachers to enable them to teach sex education in schools using the course we developed.
Not only do we create new partnerships, but we also develop topics that respond to the age, profession and other needs of the audience. For example, at Lviv's economic high school, we organised a conference for 10 pupils on the theme of "Growing up: let's talk about the law". During this event, we discussed gender equality, consent to sexual relations and liability in the event of violation of sexual freedom. We were also invited for the second time to give a talk at the sex education camp for young people organised by the Foundation for Regional Initiatives (FRI). We gave a talk on the theme of "What is sex and the culture of consent". In a friendly and safe atmosphere, the participants discussed what sex is and how each of us defines the limits of our relationships.
This year we are also proud of a new collaboration. With the Child-friendly school, we launched a sex education project for their pupils. These talks used a holistic approach to teach about gender identity, relationships, sexuality and gender equality. One of the highlights was the "Friendship, love and romantic relationships" conference. In this lecture, the psychologist explained the difference between healthy and destructive relationships, emphasising the importance of personal boundaries and mutual respect. One of the most important collaborations this year was a series of lectures organised for Workshop of dream, a support centre for people with mental disabilities. We held talks on "My body and its limits" and "The legal limits of what is permitted". Participants discussed their own space, the importance of personal limits and legal aspects. The teaching method using puppets was particularly interesting, as it made the material accessible to people with mental disabilities. This helped participants to better understand complex concepts and apply them to real-life situations.
We would like to thank all the participants and partners for their openness and active participation. We are convinced that together, in small steps, we will change the approach to sex education for children and young people, creating a world without violence, where respect and safety are essential aspects of relationships. If your organisation or school is interested in working with us, please contact us at office@femwork.org.
"Adult" podcast
Our podcast is an informal conversation between sexologist and psychologist Ulyana Bontsio and host Hania, who herself was recently a teenager and has many questions about self-discovery, sex and relationships.
We have endeavoured to make this podcast interesting and relevant. The project has attracted the attention of teenagers and older people alike, as the topics covered are relevant to a wide audience. This is the first podcast on sexuality aimed at teenagers that deals openly with LGBT+ issues and is recorded in Ukrainian. For us, this is not just educational work, but also a contribution to the creation of high-quality content in the Ukrainian language.
Over the 10 episodes of the podcast, we have received over 263,300 views and 18,500 thousand hours of video viewing. Thank you all for following us!
International activities
As in previous years, it was important for us to continue to share information with the international community about Ukrainian resistance to Russian aggression and the voices of women during the large-scale invasion. So we maintained our Twitter page in English, our Patreon account and created videos for TikTok to spread the word about Ukrainian resistance. We took part in international meetings where we talked about the lives of Ukrainian women during the war and the consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian war for society, the crimes of the Russian Federation and the importance of armed support for Ukraine.
For example, we took part in a meeting with the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine to mark International Women's Day, at which we also invited a female member of the military. We also organised four meetings of the Ukrainian 'Feminist Kitchen' (events whose cycle we closed in 2024), where Ukrainian and international activists discussed socio-political issues and their own experience as activists, exchanging views and building bridges for a common struggle. For example, we organised meetings on topics such as collective care, international solidarity, reflections from Ukraine and Italy, and elections in Europe during the war.
Together with Ukrainian activists, historians and human rights activists, and in collaboration with Iranian-American activist Frieda Afari, we have produced a video calling for support for Ukraine during the full-scale invasion. It highlights the thoughts and experiences of Ukrainian women during the war and underlines the importance of solidarity with Ukraine and the danger of Russian imperialism, not just for Ukraine, but for the whole world.
Thanks to the support of friends from all over the world, our publications appear in foreign languages and the voices of Ukrainian activists are heard around the world (for example, our news has been translated not only into Spanish, English and French, but also into Chinese, Norwegian and other languages). None of this would have been possible without the support of our loyal friends. This year, we had the honour of meeting one of them in person and thanking him (Thank you, Patrick!).
We also took part in several international conferences this year, at which we kept reiterating the essential point: the war is on and Ukraine needs global support. For example, at the AWID international forum, our activist Yosh gave a speech from the main stage in support of the Ukrainian resistance and the women who are fighting Russian imperialism for a democratic and free future.
We will continue to amplify the voices of Ukrainian women and the Ukrainian resistance over the coming year, because we believe that the world must be informed about Russian crimes and that the solidarity and support of the international community are essential to defeat Russian imperialism and its wars of aggression.
"Talking to a foreign audience about the challenges and threats of Russian invasion is difficult and exhausting - because of the general state of affairs in a context permanent crisis, the difference experiences and the diversity of points of view on the events (the narrative of the Russian is firmly established even in the very consciousness of our allies).
We hope that we have been able to debunk existing myths, strengthen Ukrainian voices and make people understand that there can be no Ukrainian feminism without a Ukraine that is independent of Russian imperialism, and that to achieve this we need armed support above all", explains Alla Solod, international coordinator.
Social networks
Our online community has grown slightly this year. And we're pleased with the changes we're seeing.
- 80 - that's the number of times we've been featured in various media.
- 17 - the number of videos we have posted on our YouTube channel this year.
- 342 posts on Instagram,
- 350 messages on Facebook,
Thanks to the development of social media, we are able to promote the ideas of feminism and support other women in our country, it is an important channel of communication with the community and educational activities.
Thank you to each and every one of you for your support. And for reading this review to the end.
Take a bold step towards 2025!
Footnotes:
1 Hosted by the feminist group Bilkis. Translator's note.