The war in Ukraine clearly demonstrated the depth and scope of intertwined human rights and humanitarian crises, and shed light on a multitude of systemic failures in both humanitarian and philanthropic responses...Against the backdrop of the multiplicity of devastating, grassroots organizers and grassroots-based grantmakers took over the lifesaving frontline work of crisis response and recovery and modeled what community-led responses truly look like. Thanks to their intersectional politics, deep relationships, knowledges of local contexts, and being in tune with the needs and priorities of local communities, the systemic alternatives built by these grassroots-led organizers are an engine for forcibly displaced people in reclaiming their agency and human dignity.
| ⧼rv-case:info-authors⧽ | Nino Ugrekhelidze |
|---|---|
| Topics | Gender, Social change, Social justice |
| Case Report | Volume 1: "Stories of Regeneration and Resilience" |
February 24th, 2023 marked one year into the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It has been a year of immeasurable loss and grief, and immense bravery and resilience in the fight for liberation from Russian imperialism. It has been a year of full-scale resistance and seismic shifts not only in Ukraine, but in all post-soviet countries in Eastern and Central Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.
I write from the position of a feminist resource justice activist from Georgia, a country that Russia waged war against in the 90s and in 2008. I have spent the last 10 years mobilizing resources for feminist and gender justice movements in my region, in Central and Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central and North Asia and globally. In this piece, you will get to know three feminist initiatives who have been at the forefront of addressing multiple crises generated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and growing authoritarianism in the region, and in doing so are building and nurturing systemic alternatives and community resilience.
Since the first day of the invasion , the ongoing war grew tidal waves of grassroots-led frontline response led by community-based organizations, informal unregistered groups, and pre-existing mutual aid systems weaved by feminists, the LGBTQIA+ community, and social justice organizers across Ukraine and neighboring countries.
In the past year, 12.8 million people have been forcibly displaced and sought refuge in safer parts of Ukraine and abroad. The ongoing war, ´partial military mobilization´ in the Russian Federation, as well as the ongoing and future economic and political crises are directly impacting people across Central and Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central and North Asia (CEECCNA).
The war in Ukraine clearly demonstrated the depth and scope of intertwined human rights and humanitarian crises, and shed light on a multitude of systemic failures in both humanitarian and philanthropic responses. For example, only 0,0003% is given directly to local NGOs and CSOs in Ukraine, and similar trends are observed in Poland, as well as all border countries.
Against the backdrop of the multiplicity of devastating, grassroots organizers and grassroots-based grantmakers took over the lifesaving frontline work of crisis response and recovery and modeled what community-led responses truly look like. Thanks to their intersectional politics, deep relationships, knowledges of local contexts, and being in tune with the needs and priorities of local communities, the systemic alternatives built by these grassroots-led organizers are an engine for forcibly displaced people in reclaiming their agency and human dignity.
Examples of movement-led response and resistance in Poland, Hungary
With the right-wing populist governments in power, Poland and Hungary have been reported as rapidly shrinking spaces for civil society. Pre-existing human rights crises and deep inequalities were further exacerbated by the impact of the invasion of Ukraine with crumbling legislative, human rights, healthcare, and educational systems. However, locally-based organizations mobilized resources, harnessed local knowledges, and built people-centered approaches to address the emergency, mid and long-term responses to the impact of the war.
Led by young Ukrainian feminists, Martynka is a solidarity in action with women and gender non-conforming people fleeing to Poland. Nastya Podorozhia, founder of Martynka is a sexual assault survivor who herself was not given adequate legal support from the Polish police. When the full-scale invasion started, she decided to proactively support refugees from Ukraine and kicked off Martynka as an alternative peer support bot and hotline.
According to the European Contraception Policy Atlas, Poland is the only country in Europe going backward in accessing contraception and has almost completely outlawed abortion. In the informational vacuum on contraception, safe abortion, and human trafficking, Martynka provides accessible multilingual information for refugees, and it is one of their most demanded services alongside psychosocial support.
In its first 8 months of its existence, Martynka worked on over 350 cases of refugees from Ukraine and helped them navigate tangled healthcare and legal systems, provided free psychological and legal consultation to survivors of gender-based violence, and continues to the role of intermediary as they bridge gaps between refugees who seek support, and service providers based in Poland.
For over a decade, the Association EMMA has been supporting, accompanying, and advocating for the reproductive health and rights of pregnant people and mothers. Centering on their life, health, and well-being, Emma´s work is a feminist proposition to obstetric violence and abusive maternity care practices in Hungary. Since the invasion of Ukraine, EMMA started a feminist frontline response in collaboration with Nane and Patent, local feminist service provision organizations. The referral system they set up is a case-based partnership and system of mutual support aiming to provide services for refugees from Ukraine to navigate healthcare, educational and legal systems. They make appointments, accompany refugees for pregnancy care, abortion, or contraception and push public systems to provide the support needed for refugees. For EMMA, their Ukraine emergency work is a response to the need which is not accommodated by the government, humanitarian, or UN agencies.
´The UN expects us to do the government's job, grow as big, and provide systemic support. They do not understand the time it takes to build trust-based relationships not only with locals but with refugees´ - Says Erika Schmidt from Association EMMA.
With the tireless lifesaving work of feminist and gender justice organizations like Martynka and EMMA, the invasion of Ukraine pushed alternatives from the edges of the system towards the mainstream. The question now is how will these systemic alternatives survive, thrive and interconnect, considering that regardless of the crucial role they play in humanitarian and human rights systems, international philanthropic and humanitarian funding does not reach their work.
To address this question we have to look to an emerging regional alternative aiming to bridge gaps in philanthropic and humanitarian systems as there is a critical need to build a better-coordinated and systemic strategy to address the complexity of ongoing multiple crises not only in Ukraine, but in the whole CEECCNA region.
Seeding of the CEECCNA Feminist Collaborative Fund
Acknowledging the critical responses and historical resistance led by grassroots organizers, and the urgent need to sustainably resource movement-led responses to multiple crises in the region, the seeds of the CEECCNA Feminist Collaborative Fund were sowed.
Initiated by feminist resource justice activists across post-soviet countries, the fund seeks to be a vehicle of crisis preparedness and response. The CEECCNA collaborative fund aims to fill critical gaps in resourcing the region with holistic, long-lasting, and consistent movement-defined and movement-led strategies and mechanisms. It hopes to redefine and expand the notion of crisis and work on interconnected humanitarian and human rights crises, as well as crises of democracy, economy, care, and future visioning beyond survival, and supporting the building and thriving of systemic alternatives such as Martynka, EMMA and thousands of other initiatives that have emerged in response to the multiple crises in the region.
One year into the resistance against Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine and decades of Russian imperialism in the region, we see alternative visions and practices built by social justice organizers multiply across the region, focusing not only on crisis response but crisis recovery. These seeds will fully flourish into the prefigurations of the better, more just, and sustainable worlds we desperately need.
Key Lessons
Trust and solidarity are integral to fighting a crisis resulting from conflict. The many facets of this crisis, and the fallout of this war, can only be combated if we’re working together. Martynka, EMMA, and CEECCNA are all organisations that have proven to be models of community-led responses, and we can learn how their deep convictions, along with their strong values, create an enduring sense of solidarity and hope much needed to survive this seismic conflict.
But the biggest challenge these life-affirming networks face is the fact that the international philanthropic and humanitarian funding does not reach them; and thus, CEECCNA bridges this gap successfully by creating a collaborative fund to promote systemic and long-lasting change and strategies. It is this bridge that needs to be replicated in such conflict-stricken regions.