Sydney, Australia

Last week, the World Conference of Women's Shelters was held in Sydney, Australia, with Olena Shevchenko as one of the keynote speakers, a third-year student in ESP “Social Work” at the Department of Social Pedagogy and Social Work, Faculty of Psychology, Social Work and Special Education at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University, Head of NGO “Insight” and co-founder of the Charitable Organisation “Women's March”.

In her 25-minute presentation, the researcher shared Ukraine's experience in responding to the humanitarian crisis, emphasising the need for changes in the international humanitarian system to provide more effective assistance to those affected, as well as the role of women in rebuilding Ukraine.
“We need to change the system so that it takes into account the context and needs of victims and survivors, rather than simply replicating template schemes that no longer work for people. Local interaction and local leadership are the basis for global cooperation and the creation of a new system of effective international assistance to victims”, emphasised Olena Shevchenko.
Olena Shevchenko is working on her dissertation topic “Sociocultural Factors of the Effectiveness of Implementing International Humanitarian Aid Programs in Ukraine”. During the conference, she outlined two key points related to her dissertation research:
• Issues with the effectiveness of international humanitarian aid in Ukraine.
• Examples of how local humanitarian initiatives have been effective in solving problems for communities and specific groups.
To wrap up her talk, Olena Shevchenko shared her personal impressions of participating in the global conference: “I had the honour to speak on behalf of Ukraine at the World Conference of Women's Shelters in Sydney. I had a unique opportunity to give a speech on the situation of women's rights in a global context and to talk about Ukraine's struggle for independence.
It was an incredible audience that supports Ukraine – women who are doing everything possible and impossible in their countries to prevent the world from falling into darkness.
This conference showed that we have support and that people want to know how they can help. We need to speak more at international forums and pay more attention to providing information. Only through individual involvement we will be able to mobilise communities and international human rights movements to defend Ukraine”.
Grinchenko University is proud of the achievements of its community and of the active presentation of scientific research important to Ukraine on the world stage.
This event is yet another confirmation of our university family's contribution to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal 5 “Gender Equality”, Goal 10 “Reduced Inequalities” and Goal 17 “Partnerships for the Goals”, which define the strategic guidelines for our activities. 

Materials provided by Faculty of Psychology, Social Work and Special Education