A gender-sensitive approach is a strategy that ensures the interests of people are met, considering their sex, gender identity, age, disability, and other factors.
The team of the Provision of Lifesaving Winterization, NFI, and Shelter Support to Conflict Affected Populations in Ukraine project will adhere to this approach during the repairs of institutions damaged by the full-scale war. According to project manager Yuliya Suchok, it is crucial to consider the gender-sensitive component when restoring social infrastructure facilities and to take into account the needs of women with children, people with disabilities, and the elderly.
“This year, within the framework of the project, we will be carrying out repairs in institutions in Zaporizka and Khersonska oblasts. When selecting institutions, our team prioritized their importance to local residents. However, we encountered situations where the institutions themselves did not always know who their service recipients were — how many, for example, were families with young children or whether any were people who use wheelchairs,” explains Yuliya Suchok.
She also adds that the team of the Charity Foundation “Stabilization Support Services” encourages social institutions and service providers to research the communities in which they operate. This requires considering the gender aspect when providing services, maintaining statistics on the most common services within the community, identifying who belongs to vulnerable groups, and analyzing the need for various services based on age, gender, and social status.
Svitlana Shkalikova, director of Zaporizhzhia Primary Health Care Center No. 2, from which the project team received a request for repairs, notes that despite the war, the institution manages to keep medical statistics.
“Our outpatient clinic provides all types of medical care, including vaccinating about 8,000 children. We constantly study data on the most common diseases. We know who the vulnerable groups are from a health perspective, how many places need to be equipped for people with disabilities, for strollers, for barrier-free movement, and for the comfortable stay of patients,” emphasized Svitlana Shkalikova.
The Provision of Lifesaving Winterization, NFI, and Shelter Support to Conflict-Affected Populations in Ukraine project is implemented by the Charity Foundation “Stabilization Support Services” in collaboration with the international humanitarian organization CARE with the support of NACHBAR IN NOT.