“This program was completely tailored to our needs. The retreat helped me to pause at the most critical moment and focus only on myself,” said Larysa Kondratenko, Coordinator of clubs for girls at the NGO “Center for European Initiatives,” about the importance of support for female employees in the public sector.
About working with girls in the frontline area
Larysa Kondratenko was born and has lived her entire life in Sumy. She has been working at the NGO “Center for European Initiatives” since 2008. At the beginning of its activity, the organization focused on international projects within the Erasmus+ program, and later began to actively work with young people. Before the full-scale war began, the “Centre for European Initiatives” had created the largest network of Euroclubs in Sumy and Sumy Oblast. The first changes in the organization's work took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the closure of borders made it impossible to implement international projects, and the team switched to the local level. After the start of the full-scale invasion, support for Sumy and Sumy Oblast became a priority. The “Center for European Initiatives” makes the most of all opportunities to support the region's residents including participation in international projects, training for young people and youth workers, as well as various activities and initiatives directly in the region.
In 2023, the organization opened clubs for girls aged 12-18, focused on preventing gender-based violence and promoting gender equality. They started with 13 spaces in Sumy Oblast, and now there are 47 operating in Sumy and Kharkiv Oblasts. Larysa is in charge of these clubs, works at the “Romantyka” youth center, and is also involved in international activities and coordinates the Council of Europe's project on preventing hate speech. She explains the importance of the clubs' work in preventing gender-based violence as follows:
“Schools work mostly online, and clubs work offline. The club facilitator is someone between an adult woman and a friend. She is a person that girls can come up to and be sure to find an answer. In regions where there is fighting, girls' rights are violated more often. It is our priority to help them so that they have support and a reliable shoulder to lean on in the form of our organization.”
When work is a way to stay afloat, but the price of exhaustion is high
Even when Larysa had to leave her hometown due to danger at the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she returned home after two months. "This is my place of strength; I feel my roots here. Every street, every tree I see here has been familiar to me since my childhood. And that's why I'm staying and working here," she says.
Larysa describes her typical workday as follows. The morning begins with breakfast, then she forces herself to walk 3 kilometers to work through a park area. This is a time when she can reflect, plan, and calm down.
“The morning starts with a lot of things to do, and I don’t know what the day will bring. Then there are meetings - personal ones, with facilitators, consultations, and planning. My work can last until 5 p.m. Then I go for another walk to speculate about what happened during the day. After dinner, I sit down to continue working. And that can end at midnight," says the coordinator.
However, such intense work has its price:
“It's very exhausting. So much so that the hardest part begins at night. My brain doesn't rest, and it's very difficult to stop thinking. Even when I put my phone away, lie down, and close my eyes, numbers, faces, and fragments of events pop up in my mind again, followed by anxiety and fear.”
Larysa explains that working in the frontline area is a double burden, because you are constantly thinking, “Will a missile attack or not? Is it safe or dangerous?” Even during this interview, the woman sat in the office kitchen because it was not very safe on the second floor in the office — you could hear drones flying in the sky. You have to focus both on your work and on the situation outside the window.
Larysa shares that during the first year of the full-scale war, she did not take care of her mental health at all. She believed that it was not the right time, that her help was needed by others. But when serious psychological stress began, and she could not even do anything, she realized that breaks were necessary.
Business trips within international projects help her unwind. There, Larysa can sleep well because she can rest when she wants to, not when the shelling allows her to. She says she loves water and trips where she can be near it, “The first time I left and couldn’t hear any explosions, I just sat there for at least two hours looking at the water. I was silent and just looked. This is one of the elements of my relaxation - not moving, being silent, doing what I like."
Retreat as an opportunity to pause
Larysa learned about the retreat organized by the NGO Girls on social media. She had known about the activities of the NGO Girls for a long time, so she really wanted to go.
The retreat lasted for four days in the village of Skhidnytsia in Lviv Oblast. Representatives of seven civil society organizations took part in it. The participants were selected from among women's rights organizations or organizations led by women working in Sumy. The program was aimed at regaining the participants' strength, providing them with psychosocial support, and relaxation. The idea for the retreat arose in response to the need for public sector professionals to have a safe space to rest, reflect on their experiences, and replenish their resources. After all, constant involvement in supporting others often leads to exhaustion, and it is precisely such events that help restore inner balance.
"At first, I couldn't even imagine that such a small number of days could recharge me. When I asked about the program/plan for our retreat, the organizers wrote that all the details would be decided on the spot. I started to worry, like, what do you mean, there is no program? But then I realized that this program was completely tailored to us. First, they met with us and discussed everything. And only then did they tailor what we needed, e.g., meetings, workshops," recalls Larysa.
She emphasizes that the retreat helped her to stop at the most critical moment and focus only on herself, to remember that she herself may need help. It is difficult for Larysa to single out what she liked the most:
“I can't say which part [I liked the most]. Each part complemented the overall picture. If you look at a painting, you can't say which corner you like best, can you? So I'll say that I liked the whole experience — making bracelets, the psychologists' wonderful voices, and the venue. It's seen as a complete program and a holistic picture.”
An important part of the project was the psychological consultations that the NGO Girls organized after the retreat to support its results. At first, Larysa did not plan to participate in them, but when she saw the invitation to a group meeting, she realized that she really needed it. After the first session, Larysa decided to continue working with the psychologist and signed up for individual consultations. She had been meeting with the specialist regularly, even finding time for sessions while on a business trip abroad. She was particularly impressed by the specialist's professionalism and attentiveness:
“The psychologist surprised me greatly because she remembered everything I had shared about myself at the retreat. She noticed my thoughts, reactions, and movements. When we began working individually, it became apparent that she had already analyzed the information about me.”
It was at the retreat that Larysa developed the trust in the psychologists that allowed her to open up and accept help. She saw their work, felt the sincerity of their approach, and this became the foundation for further therapy.
Larysa is convinced that retreats for public sector workers in the frontline area are not a luxury but a necessity.
“Our work is very stressful due to the security situation. We are people who are needed by society and who give ourselves all the time. And when you give everything, you simply burn out. There is nothing left inside. That is why such initiatives as retreats are so important, when you can stop and recharge your batteries a little.”
What the world should know about the public sector in Ukraine
Speaking about her work, Larysa emphasizes the unique role of the public sector in Ukraine:
“Our public sector is one of the most important. We don’t work for the sake of work. We work on the challenges and needs that exist in society. It is public organizations that meet these needs.”
She emphasizes the large scope of the work — from gender equality and violence prevention to human rights protection, educational and training initiatives, humanitarian aid, and much more. “The public sector fills a gap in what is really needed by people: young people, girls, women, veterans, anyone in our community,” says Larysa.
She shares that she loves working with young people and sees it as her mission. She wants young people to develop self-confidence and not be afraid of making mistakes. “If they make a mistake, they should always remember that it is not a mistake, but only an attempt to achieve what they wanted and a search for a way forward. That is my main goal."
Despite all the challenges, fear due to the security situation, and exhaustion, Larysa continues to work. It is not just a job for her - it is her mission, her way of staying strong and helping those in need in the most difficult circumstances.
Photo: Denys Kryvopyshyn
This publication was prepared within the project “Enhancing the safety, security, and mental health of women and girls, as well as advancing their human rights,” implemented by the NGO Girls together with UN Women Ukraine, with financial support from the governments of Sweden and Latvia.
The opinions and judgments expressed in the text are the personal opinions of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views of UN Women, organizations, and donors supporting the project.
