World Vision US VP Mark Smith highlights critical need to support girls and women in Ukraine

Thursday, October 19, 2023

“The work that's being done here is critical with women, with girls, with disabled or vulnerable groups in terms of helping them deal with the issues that have been brought about by the conflict, helping them recover. Helping them get back to a normal life, normal childhood.”

In his recent visit in Ukraine, World Vision US Vice President for Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs Mark Smith met with displaced people in Kyiv and Dnipro where World Vision works with various partners through the support of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA).

**World Vision US VP Mark Smith and UCR Response Director Chris Palusky in a conversation with staff about the situation in the Ukrainian village they visited recently.**

Standing at a school damaged during the fighting and seeing the destruction around the village, Smith said “The work that’s being done here, especially around mental health, psychosocial support, counselling services and provision of safe space for children is very critical and extremely significant.”

World Vision’s work has reached out to over 170,000 people, around 63,000 of them were children through the “Addressing the immediate multi-sectoral humanitarian needs of IDPs and conflict-affected populations inside Ukraine Project”.

**Smith was joined by Chief of Party Blerina Lako during the meeting with World Vision's partner NGO Girls. He appreciated the hard work that local partners are doing on the ground.**

The accomplishment was made possible by the hard work and commitment of six partners namely HealthRight, Dorcas, Youth Movement Be Free, Baptist World Alliance, Arms of Mercy and Hungarian Interchurch Aid.

The sectors of humanitarian assistance included mobile mental health and psychosocial support and protection, multi-purpose cash assistance, food and non-food items, and mobile kitchens. Apart from BHA, World Vision is also supported by ACTED Ukraine and the Ukraine Response Consortium.

There's a lot of work still to be done here. We are just about entering the second award here for BHA as we wrap up the first one.

“We are very grateful of the support of our donors and partners who made this project achieve what is urgently needed by the displaced people in Ukraine. As we embark on the second phase, we are looking forward to serving more people through our partners”, said Blerina Lako, Chief of Party.

Smith lauded the work of World Vision’s partners in helping people get back to their normal life despite the ongoing conflict. He also visited one partner’s work NGO Girls, a women-led organization whose work is focused in supporting women and girls.

**Smith and Lako with the NGO Girls team. He said there is still indeed a lot of work to be done especially for women and girls.**

He further said, “There's a lot of work still to be done here. We are just about entering the second award here for BHA as we wrap up the first one.”

He added, “One thing that I am really encouraged by some of our partners is that they are trying to push further east closer to the line of control where the needs are greater. That's really encouraging to hear that we're going to be providing services where the needs are greatest.”

The project’s phase 2 aptly named “Proving multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance to conflict-affected populations in Ukraine” has been launched this October 2023 with a start-up workshop attended by various partners.

By Cecil Laguardia, Communications Director l Photos by Chris Lete and Eugene Combo/WorldVision