Ms. Magazine: “Ukraine Donations Go Further and Faster with Women’s Funds”
Women’s funders cannot—and will not—stand by as women, girls and other marginalized people once again face the brunt of risk, trauma and tragedy.
This article was originally published on March 30, 2022 by Inside Philanthropy. It is reposted here with permission.
As we watch the war rage in Ukraine with families separated and more than 2 million women and children forced to flee their homes to escape bombings, air raids and violence, we stand in solidarity with all those in Ukraine and elsewhere around the world where there are wars and devastating refugee crises. History shows us that women, children and LGBT+ people face a particularly high threat of violence during armed conflicts, and it’s critical to get emergency humanitarian aid as well as long-term rebuilding efforts into communities.
The consequences of Putin’s aggression are dire for women, girls and non-binary people. Whenever armed conflict breaks out, violence against women increases exponentially, and sexual violence often becomes a weapon of war itself, as witnessed in Bosnia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda, among others.
There’s also the risk to pregnant women, who must try to bring new life into the world without losing their own in the process. The U.N. reports that 80,000 women from Ukraine will give birth over the next three months, many of them away from home and without access to medical care or even sanitary conditions. Already, Ukrainian women have had to give birth in a bomb shelter, in a subway station, and evacuate with their newborns just hours postpartum after the maternity wing of a hospital was bombed.