Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 14 June 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence

UN Women's Peace & Humanitarian Fund: Discussion

Ms Olena Stryzhak:

I support what Ms El Khyari has said. My organisation is also involved in all of these processes. Every day we are in touch with women who apply to us. Not all fully disclose what happened in the places they come from. After a time they are ready to share this information with us. Our mandate is to support them and give them full information about where and how they can have an opportunity to talk and to get support, medical and psychological care. We pay attention to these cases. For me they are very important because I understand how traumatic they are. I want those who did what was done to take responsibility. We should do this slowly and softly because the situations are tragic and traumatic. We have information on how to do this from the UN but we cannot give clear instructions. In Ukraine the governance structures of many cities and places have been destroyed and are not working as they did. Some government organisations and clinics have difficulties. We do not have normal lives now. We had been developing as a country but structures and places have now been destroyed and we are trying to reorganise our lives. I agree with what has been said. It is very important to have help and the benefit of experience. We are building the structures for this support.