War Child work with thousands of women and girls living in war zones across the world. These women and girls face a unique set of challenges: they are more likely to experience gender-based violence, to be drafted into armed groups and to face limited access to education and job opportunities.
At War Child we strive to ensure that every girl living in a conflict zone has the resources and opportunities needed to grow up as an equal. We give girls access to education and psychosocial support and make sure that they are aware of their rights. We recognise that true inclusion and equality requires equitable action.
This International Women’s Day we are standing in solidarity with women living in conflict zones: mothers who have been forced to flee their homes in Ukraine, colleagues who are unable to work under the current regulations in Afghanistan and with woman and girls around the world who are raising families amidst the chaos of war.
Help us provide a safer, brighter future to woman and girls living in conflict.
To spend the winter here is a nightmare. I think it’s going to be horrible. We are very concerned about the winter, really worried.
Svetlana’s story
The day the invasion of Ukraine began, Svetlana was heavily pregnant with her daughter. She heard an explosion and remembers being terrified. As the fighting intensified, Svetlana and her family sought shelter in her mother-in-law’s basement. It was dark and cold, and the sound of explosions and fighting intensified over the course of the night. Despite not being due for another two weeks, the stress and fear caused Svetlana to go into early labour. She had contractions in the basement for four hours before she and her husband made the agonising decision to travel above ground to the hospital for the daughter he had always wanted.
Not long after giving birth to her daughter in a make-shift bomb shelter underground in the hospital, Svetlana and her children fled Ukraine. She had to leave everything behind, including her husband, her home, and life as she knew it.
Families like Svetlana’s now have little to no access to the money they need to survive.
Alongside our partners, War Child are working around the clock to help vulnerable families like Svetlana’s survive through winter amidst the chaos of war.
