"In Ukraine there are 2 million more women than men. These days, this statistic takes on its full meaning," First Lady Olena Zelenska told French newspaper Le Parisien in a recent interview. "Our resistance, like our future victory, also has a particularly feminine face…Women are fighting in the army, they are signed up to territorial defense, they are the foundation of a powerful volunteer movement to supply, deliver, and feed. Others are simply doing their jobs, in hospitals, pharmacies, shops, transport, public services, so that life continues."
Shortly after Russia began its attack on Ukraine, First Lady Olena Zalenska sent out an urgent appeal to other first ladies of the world asking them to support the women and children refugees who were fleeing her country. In particular, Zalenska was concerned about sick children who required medical help.
“My appeal was heard,” Zelenska wrote. “I want to thank all Europeans who are now helping our people, giving them homes, feeding them, encouraging them… like us, you weren’t prepared for having so many traumatized people in your country."
French First Lady Brigitte Macron and Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zalenska in 2019 in Paris. (Instagram)
The Guardian reports that "Zelenska has been working with Brigitte Macron and Agata Kornhauser-Duda, who is married to Poland’s president, to evacuate sick Ukrainian children, particularly those needing life-saving treatment for cancer."
First Lady Jill Biden is also involved in the support effort. Several weeks ago, Kornhauser-Duda called her to ask for help getting more medical supplies to the Polish border. Days later, Poland's First Lady flew to the United States and personally shepherded medicine and equipment to hospitals in Poland. Last week during the President's visit to Poland, Kornhauser-Duda asked President Biden to convey her thanks to the First Lady for her "very swift assistance."
Over this past weekend, Jill Biden visited several Ukrainian cancer patients now being treated at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. Biden told CNN that several more Ukrainian pediatric cancer patients will be arriving at St. Jude this week for treatment.
First Lady Jill Biden visits Ukrainian cancer patients at St. Jude's in Memphis on March 25, 2022. (Instagram)
In an interview with ABC News on March 15, First Lady Zalenska spoke directly to American women. "I appeal to you, women in America, and ask to support Ukrainian women and children who escaped from war and are looking for a shelter in your country," she said. "These days every act of kindness and humanism is vital while we are bravely fighting for freedom for Ukraine, for Europe, for the whole world."
According to the United Nations, there are now an estimated four million refugees, most of them women and children, who have fled to neighboring countries. Last Thursday, President Biden announced that the United States would accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and donate $1 billion to European countries dealing with the humanitarian crisis.
On March 24, UNICEF reported that the war "has led to the displacement of 4.3 million children – more than half of the country’s estimated 7.5 million child population. This includes more than 1.8 million children who have crossed into neighboring countries as refugees and 2.5 million who are now internally displaced inside Ukraine."
Save the Children says that "a growing number of these children are arriving on their own," like 11-year-old Hassan, whose mother made the heart wrenching decision to send him to his brother, a college student in Slovakia, while she stayed at home to care for her 84-year-old mother. Hassan rode the train to Slovakia carrying only a backpack and a plastic bag with his passport, with his brother's phone number written on his hand. He was reunited safely with his brother.
“The war has caused one of the fastest large-scale displacements of children since World War II."
— UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell
"Displaced children are at heightened risk of violence, exploitation and abuse, while displaced women and girls are especially at risk of gender-based violence when sheltering or seeking asylum," UNICEF said in a statement.
As Nazanin Ash, the CEO of Welcome.US, noted in an email I received recently, "as breathtaking as the speed, scale, and needs of the crisis have been, so too has been the outpouring of support. From moms in a Polish border town leaving strollers at a train station for their fellow Ukrainian moms stepping off long journeys with exhausted children, to a new initiative in the United Kingdom that invited its citizens to open their homes (over 100,000 people signed up in less than a day) – everyday Welcomers have been stepping up to help and in turn have inspired all of us."
Families arrive in Berdyszcze, Poland, after crossing the border from Ukraine. (Credit: UNICEF/UN0605554/Remp)
Welcome.US was founded to channel the outpouring of support for Afghan refugees following the fall of Kabul last year and to strengthen the refugee resettlement system for the future. Its honorary co-chairs include four former presidents and first ladies — President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, President George Bush and Laura Bush, President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, and President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter.
You can help humanitarian efforts in Ukraine and neighboring countries by supporting the organizations on the ground who are providing frontline aid and working to set up systems to support people displaced both within Ukraine and in neighboring countries. Welcome.US has launched a new online portal — the Ukraine Welcome Hub — to connect you to all the ways you can help right now. This resource will be updated continuously, and I hope you will share it with your friends.
Onward!
-Pat
