ABOUT THE WOMEN’S OPPORTUNITY FUND

The Women's Opportunity Fund, a new entity created by Project Kesher Ukraine, is providing grants ranging from $500 to $1500 to support small women's businesses that need to rebuild or expand.  In the first cycle, the Fund received 127 applications and the plan is to grant 50 immediately with a total expenditure of $75,000. Due to the number and quality of applications, PKU is accepting applications and awarding grants throughout 2023. 

A few examples of what the Women’s Opportunity Fund is providing: 

• A new coffee machine and furniture for a coffee shop in Mariupol.

• New equipment for a dental clinic that had to relocate from Donetsk to Vinnytsia.

• Production of Ukrainian cosmetics for a brand launched by a doctor during the war.

• Production equipment for a small clothing business owned by a mother/daughter pair, who recently had to relocate to Dnipro. 

• A camera for a young woman from Kyiv starting a photography business.

• Sewing machines for a woman from the Luhansk region. She and her family are in the process of relocating, and her husband is a soldier who was recently wounded.

The social service administration in Krasnopilia, a town in Sumy, Ukraine has requested 10 electric bikes to enable social workers to see clients and deliver food, medicine and household items. The town is close to the Russian border and is shelled daily. Without public transportation, the social workers are struggling to meet the needs of their 382 clients. The Women’s Opportunity Fund of Ukraine has ordered the bikes and they will be placed shortly.

Displaced by the war, Iryna Abalmaz, the owner of the Little Mariupol coffee shop, relocated to the Ukrainian City of Dnipro and turned to the Women’s Opportunity Fund (WOF-UA) for a grant in February 2023. With WOF-UA’s support, Iryna purchased and installed a bar counter and furniture for her first coffee shop. She has been so successful that she has been expanding her business - and just opened her fourth cafe.

The Women’s Opportunity Fund continues to provide grants to support small women's businesses that need to rebuild or expand. Olena Yashina, founder of Yashina studio embroidery business, makes goods with Ukrainian embroidery, including clothing, household items, and military uniforms. She is currently training new employees and plans to expand her production. The grant money ($2,700 USD) will be used to invest in a new embroidery machine.

The Women's Opportunity Fund of Ukraine has been strategically identifying ways to help women build their skills and opportunities for growth during the war. One of those ways is through training on a Ukrainian educational platform called Laba. The most recent graduate - Project Kesher Ukraine's Galina Sadirova. After 24 years as PKU's translator... and so much more, last year Galina was promoted to Director of Special Projects. In her new capacity, Galina has played an important role in vetting grants to Ukrainian women, supporting evacuations and placement of humanitarian aid, and representing PKU and WOF-UA at both in-person and online meetings. In addition, this past year, Galina oversaw several grants including one from the American Arbitration Association's International Centre for Dispute Resolution on the importance of mediation in wartime Ukraine and the impact of ensuring that the growing use of AI does not embed sexism and racism in Ukrainian society. Now, through the support of WOF-UA Galina is a graduate of Labas's project management training to enable her to better support these new initiatives. Galina reports that she not only loved the training but it was "very practical, providing useful skills that will definitely help me make better decisions." WOF-UA has sent 30 women for training and plans to send another 10 in this fiscal year.

The Women’s Opportunity Fund has provided funds for a generator for Sura Agro, an oilseeds and grains company. Sura Agro has had trouble processing its locally grown sunflower seeds into cold pressed oil due to a shortage of electricity. Its products are a staple in Ukrainian life and bring funds into Ukraine from international sales. Sura Agro employs many Ukrainians and, with a generator stabilizing their production, should be able to expand hiring.

The Fund is providing electric bicycles for nurses in the Sumy region of Ukraine - just 30 miles from the war zone - who travel to help the sick, elderly and pregnant.

Project Kesher Ukraine’s Women’s Opportunity Fund is providing emergency relief for those affected by the dam disaster. In the Kherson region and parts of the Mykolayiv region, buildings are flooded at least to the second floor, and PK is purchasing and distributing pumps quickly to get water out of flooded areas. The Fund is also providing food, first aid kits, and thousands of bottles of water for women and families. $10,000 provides clean water for almost 2,000 people for a week.

The Women’s Opportunity Fund provided food packages to our partner in Mykolaiv, RATC, that focuses on evacuations, pumping water out of flooded areas, and delivering food and medicine to cities that have suffered from the dam disaster. This week, RATC delivered food packages provided by Project Kesher Ukraine to shelters in Kherson.  

The Fund recently provided professional equipment and a new workspace to a woman working in cheese production, allowing her to successfully scale her business and produce cheese for surrounding communities and people on the front lines.

The Women's Opportunity Fund awarded scholarships to 6 women to study at Beetroot Academy, a social enterprise that helps people build successful careers in tech. The scholarships are being funded in memory of Mara Schwartz, a longtime PK supporter. The Women’s Opportunity Fund received a total of 60 applications for these initial awards. The women who were selected will study front end development and web design. 

The Women’s Opportunity Fund provided kitchen appliances for a nonprofit in Ukraine to continue supplying food to Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk region. They wrote, “We are not alone. It’s so encouraging to feel this kind of support through such a difficult year. We thank the Women’s Opportunity Fund for the equipment that will accelerate and improve our work."

One of the recipients of the Women’s Opportunity Fund’s mini-grants for women entrepreneurs was Alina Marnenko, who opened a museum for those who are visually impaired. All of the tours at “The Museum in the Dark”  are conducted by people who are blind and feature captivating stories and music. The Fund helped the museum purchase a laptop, two portable speakers, and a generator to allow them to continue running their business.