#98 From Crisis to Construction: Women, Health, and Civil Society in Wartime Ukraine

At the 2026 Ukrainian Renaissance conference in Kyiv, we put together a panel on mental health, PTSD, supporting people in a war-torn country, and related issues. After more than four years of full-scale war, the panelists discuss how mental health needs have changed, from the daily toll of air raid alarms to violence against women and children. They also cover Barnahus child-friendly centers, resistance to sexual education, funding cuts and the shortage of psychologists outside the big cities, and why Ukrainian organizations should be treated as equal partners. In the Q&A, they answer a question about living with PTSD.

It features two of the three Ukrainian mental health organizations that our humanitarian mission, Operation Kyseláč, supported in 2022:

• Olha Lopushanska , Associate Programs Director at HealthRight International
• Daryna Ivchenko , Deputy Director for Programs at Divchata

The panel was moderated by Anastasiia Farbun , a Kyiv-based psychologist and art-therapist.

Support our humanitarian mission in Kherson https://savekherson.org/

Our thanks to Nesehnutí for their recommending Divchata and HealthRight when we were looking for partners in mental health and for helping us put this panel together.