Our activities are grouped around research, education, advocacy and awareness-raising on the promotion and creation of equal opportunities and non-discrimination, inclusion and empowerment of underrepresented and vulnerable groups in the Dnipro region and beyond, focusing on decision-making systems and structures.
During the full-scale invasion we have been trying to reach out to the groups that remain least heard and collect their experience to be able to advocate for positive changes.
Below you will find our reports on research activities conducted since 2021.
Ukrainian women in higher education: challenges, problems and coping strategies during the full-scale invasion
Report coming soon
National School Environment Survey: Creating Safe School Environment for Ukrainian LGBTQ teenagers
Report coming soon
In Ukraine, studies on LGBTQ minors are almost non-existent for several reasons. First, research on minors requires many permits and procedures aimed at protecting children. However, even greater difficulties are caused by the taboo nature of the topic: it is almost impossible for the school administration and most parents to agree to conduct research on sexual orientation and gender identity among students. In part, this problem was solved thanks to an online survey that was conducted as a pilot project in 2017 by NGO Fulcrum, repeated in 2020 by Parents’ Initiative TERGO with Maryna Shevtsova as the Principal investigator, and now re-designed and conducted in 2023 by Equal Opportunity Platform to include not only Ukrainian teenagers in Ukraine but also those who are now under temporary protection abroad as refugees from Russian aggression. Almost 900 Ukrainian LGBTQI+ teenagers in Ukraine and those who were forced to leave Ukraine and went abroad with their relatives answered questions about how they feel at school and at home.
The findings of the study demonstrate that children aged 13 to 18 who identify themselves as LGBTQI+ face bullying every day in a Ukrainian school. Almost 80% of such students do not feel safe at school for various reasons: because of their sexual orientation, romantic preferences, gender identity, appearance, and the way they express their gender. Almost 30% of the interviewed teenagers reported incidents of violence against them, and more than 70% talked about homo- and transphobic statements that they heard not only from other children but also from teachers and school administration.
More than 60% of LGBTQI+ teenagers in Ukraine reported that there is no adult close to them whom they could trust and talk about bullying at school. More than 50% of children chose not to tell anyone about bullying at school because they either did not believe that the teaching staff would react or had already had a negative experience when they were advised “not to provoke the bully” or “not to pay attention.” This situation at school leads to the fact that LGBTQ+ children miss classes more often because of bullying; they often have low self-esteem, increased anxiety, and a tendency to have depressive and even suicidal thoughts. At the same time, our study showed that the presence of at least one supportive adult in the school has a very positive effect on the psychological state of LGBTQI+ children.
Unfortunately, Ukrainian teacher education still does not provide for the training of educators on how to work with LGBTQI+ children and create an inclusive school environment for them as well. Currently, this mission has fallen on the shoulders of public organizations, which conduct training with teachers, psychologists, and school administration to teach how to work with LGBTQI+ teenagers and their parents. Since 2016, several hundred educators have already undergone such training, but for such a large country as ours, this is a drop in the ocean.
The quantitative data from the study that finished in Fall 2023 is now analyzed, and we expect to publish a full report on the study and translate it into English in March-April 2024.
Object of the study: women on elected and non-elected/administrative posts in local government in Dnipro region.
Subject of the study: identifying specifics of women’s career development in local government in the times of peace and war.
Study methods: based on the use of conceptual foundations of ethno-methodological and phenomenological sociological theory. The abovementioned methodology framework envisages the use of quality methods for a sociological study. The chosen study method is narrative in-depth interview. When analyzing the obtained results, comparative strategy of “minimal” and “maximal” contrast was used, i.e., highlighting similar content constructs in narrative texts as well as typical constructs for different biographic episodes. Reflexive projective method of “unfinished sentences” was also used, which allowed to document generally widespread ideas, associations, stereotypes and perception frame structures.
Theoretical sample: The selection of informants for the study was done according to the criterion of involvement in work on different levels of local government on both elected and non-elected posts. In particular, the following women were surveyed: two representatives of an elected local body on the regional level (regional council MPs); two representatives of an elected local body on the community level (village councils); eight representatives of non-elected posts in local government, namely administrative employees of different levels (from an expert to head of structural unit). Study participants represent different communities in Dnipro region.
Interview tools: The interview guide consisted of five blocks of questions common for all groups of informants, with some variations in questions on professional activities (for elected/non-elected posts). A separate block of the study is a concise analysis of legislation on the functioning of local government bodies in Ukraine.
The period of the study: January-March 2023. The study was conducted with regard to the security situation in the country and under the condition of non-disclosure of study participants’ personal data.
Full-scale war became a real challenge for all Ukrainian women. This is especially true for their vulnerable groups which face the consequences of war the most often.
Since 24 February, women have been opposing and fighting the Russian aggression, standing on the frontlines side-by-side with men, joining the Armed Forces of Ukraine, serving in Territorial Defense, and working against the aggressor on all fronts out there. That is why for our study we selected the categories of women which became more vulnerable as a result of full-scale invasion.
The challenges and needs faced by these categories of women in the context of war are rather specific; that is why it is necessary to study their individual experiences. This allows to look for efficient ways of problem-solving and introduce reforms justified by special needs of vulnerable
groups.
This is our way towards changes and healthy Ukrainian society in the future. Obviously, the results of such studies draw the attention of international donors and volunteers. International organizations and charity funds can choose the vector for their aid, which is an invaluable contribution to the solution of current problems.
Despite present realia like power line disruptions, air raids and missile attacks
the researchers managed to collect the necessary information, analyze it and
present valuable results. Such studies are necessary, especially in such complicated times when the collection of new data becomes a challenge.
To consciously evaluate problems emerging now in Ukrainian society, we propose you a report prepared based on the results of our sociological study.
According to the UN data, after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion approximately 6.5 million people left Ukraine and approximately 7 million people became IDPs. Among those who left the country or became IDPs there are many representatives of key communities (sex workers, injection drug users, LGBT+ people, and former prisoners).
Unfortunately, presently
we don’t have reliable and accurate data about the amount of key community representatives who left the country or moved to another region. The regions which took in internally displaced men and women from the territories of active hostilities and temporarily occupied territories enabled key community representatives to obtain HIV prevention and treatment services as well as substitution therapy.
Center for Public Health of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine promptly established a national hotline for questions about the closest AIDS Center or confidential office and also developed a Telegram bot and a website with the help of which HIV-positive IDPs can find out where they can get ART abroad, consult with a friendly physician and which organizations help Ukrainians from vulnerable communities who left the country.
However, there is a range of problems key community representatives faced due to active hostilies and forced displacement, mainly the following: challenges with work and housing; loss of
documents; problems with registration at a new site to receive substitution therapy.
This article contains a situation review for vulnerable groups in Dnipro region: how the full-scale invasion modified needs and which problems emerged for community representatives.
To compile this article, we used open-source data published by Center for Public Health of MOH of Ukraine, Public Health Alliance international charity fund, and Free Zone charity fund. Besides, we conducted 20 semi-structured in-depth interviews: 11 with key community representatives, seven with social workers and two with doctors working in confidential offices in Dnipro region.
14 interviews in total were recorded in Kryvyi Righ and six in Dnipro. The average duration of an interview was about 50 minutes. The shortest interview lasted 25 minutes and the longest one, 185 minutes. The interview distribution is provided in the table below.
Author: Dafna Rachok, commissioned by Equal Opportunities Platform NGO
The research is dedicated to problems and needs of LGBT+ community in Dnipro and Dnipro
region.
As a result of full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the lives of of everyone who lived and stayed in our country changed overnight.
LGBT+ community representatives belonged and still belong to vulnerable population categories
as they don’t have proper legal protection, can fall victims to hate crimes, etc.
The goal of the study was to identify problems and needs of respondents, to document their
emotional and psychological state, and to collect experiences of life in the wartime.
To collect information, interviews were used as a method via direct focused conversation of an interviewer with respondent(s) (both offline and online).
The questions for the survey were provided by Maryna SHEVTSOVA, Executive Director of Equal Opportunities Platform, and Olha POLIAKOVA, head of Gender Stream
The research singled out two occupation categories chosen by numerous Ukrainian women who
find themselves abroad: cleaning/care and beauty services. Those working in these fields were invited to participate in the study.
The study’s main goal was to identify the main needs and peculiarities of stay in Poland for employed Ukrainian women in 2022.
It was decided to use a quality method of research, i.e., in-depth interviews to obtain information via direct focused conversation of the interviewer with respondents.
We should note that study results are of illustrative nature and by no means representative. Having
analyzed the interviews, we divided study results into three stages.
First stage: travel from Ukraine to Poland (push to move, motivational aspects, etc.)
Second stage: “adaptation” (search for accommodation and job, communication, studying
language)
Third stage: “integration” (career, new contacts and plans for the future).
During the study, seven interviews with conducted with women aged 18 to 50. The interviews were held between August 27 and September 16, 2022.
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