My name is Daryna Trebukh, and I lead an NGO called “Ukrainian Walkyrie.” We work in twelve regions of Ukraine, from frontline communities in Sumy and Chernihiv regions to temporary accommodation, dormitories, and rented apartments where millions of Ukrainian women live today.
Our mission is to protect women’s rights and develop their internal resources — emotional, civic, and digital — so that Ukrainian women can stand on their own feet and help other women do the same.
Russia’s full-scale war forced more than 4.6 million people to leave their homes within the country, and approximately 58 percent of them are women.
In humanitarian reports, they almost always appear as victims and never as agents of change. A displaced woman simultaneously loses several pillars of stability: Her local political voice, access to the labor market, social connections, and the ability to safely navigate digital spaces.
It is precisely there, in Facebook and TikTok feeds, that another pitfall emerges: targeted disinformation campaigns convincing displaced women that they are “not welcome in the west of the country,” that assistance is not intended for them, and that their voice does not matter.
Agents of change, not victims
Ukrainian Walkyrie is now in the middle of implementing a project called “Learn Influence,” a digital civic literacy training program. Its goal is to give internally displaced women practical skills to protect themselves in the digital world and to use it as a tool for influence, rather than merely for survival.
Our goal was that after completing the course, each participant would be able to recognize manipulation, securely configure her accounts, access a government service online, tell her own story in a way that will be heard, and — most importantly — pass this knowledge on to other women in her community.
Our participants are women aged 25–55, predominantly single mothers and women who head households, rural women from frontline regions, military wives, and women veterans.
They are not a “vulnerable minority.” In many host communities, they constitute the majority of the population. Yet they are absent from the conversations about Ukraine’s future and recovery.
The school is fully remote, and this is fundamental. The online format removes the geographical and logistical barrier for women who move between regions or cannot leave their children, while evening webinars take mothers’ responsibilities into account.
The program runs for six months and is divided into two waves, each with a cohort of 20 to 25 women. It is built around six thematic modules: “My Digital Footprint” (digital hygiene, passwords, privacy), “How Disinformation Works” (the anatomy of hostile narratives and practical fact-checking), “Social Media as a Battlefield” (algorithms, bots, culture of dialogue), “Voice and Influence” (storytelling, communication with the media and local authorities), “Your Digital Rights” (data protection and government e-services), and the final module, “From Participant to Ambassador.”
Each week includes a 90-minute live webinar, an asynchronous assignment for those experiencing power outages or poor connectivity, a daily cohort chat on Telegram, and small-group mentoring sessions. All materials are free of charge and remain accessible after completion.
Achieving multiplier effect
We are currently in the midst of the first cohort, so it is still too early to speak about final results, but early outcomes are already visible.
I would describe the most successful outcome as the moment when a woman feels confident enough to publicly speak out publicly for the first time.
In our previous programs, a participant from a frontline region began organizing a mutual-support group for newly arrived displaced women in her city after completing the course.
She personally taught more than 30 women digital and civic fundamentals. None of whom had been reached by any government program. This multiplier effect is what we build into the program design: One trained woman becomes a node in an entire network.
We expect to see the project’s full results later, and we are monitoring them through specific indicators. By the end of the project, we aim for at least 22 women to complete the program with a measured increase in digital competencies, at least 15 to create their own public digital product (a post, guide, or video story), and at least 3 to launch their own initiatives in their communities.
But the most important result extends beyond the individual project. We will publish the school’s methodology under an open license so that any Ukrainian or regional organization can replicate the program free of charge. We are focusing not on reach at any cost, but on what can be passed on without us.
We want to scale “Learn Influence” from a national pilot into a regional model for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, so that partner organizations can adapt the course for women affected by displacement, whether internal or cross-border.
Displaced women are not a humanitarian footnote at the end of a report, but a strategic community on which the future of Ukrainian democracy depends. Our work is not about handing out fish, and not even merely about giving someone a fishing rod; it is about helping a woman remember that she has always known how to fish — and reminding ten women beside her the same.
