A shared story of resilience. Thank you Aidsfonds!

Today we would like to express our deep gratitude to our donor Aidsfonds and the Emergency Fund for Ukraine and CEECA for supporting our Solidarity in Action project («Солідарність в дії»), which has enabled us to support thousands of people in our community during this extremely difficult period.

YEAR OF RESILIENCE: WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED TOGETHER IN 2025

The war in Ukraine has been a critical test for everyone, but for the sex workers (SWs) community, it has exacerbated already difficult challenges: economic insecurity, stigma, and limited access to basic services.

Partner trust and funding have become not just a resource for us, but a true foundation for resilience. During 2025, the CO “Legalife-Ukraine” turned every hryvnia of support into real changes in 18 cities of Ukraine - from frontline areas to rear hubs. One has only to see how the eyes and gaze of our beneficiaries change when they understand that they are not left alone.

Here are just a few numbers, but behind each of them is a living person, their pain and their victory:

Humanitarian dignity package: Over 1,000 sex workers and their families felt our joint care. We handed over almost 8,400 humanitarian kits, and this is much more than just boxes of food and hygiene products.

These are power banks that provided communication with relatives during long blackouts.

These are warm jackets or blankets that warmed them in cold rented rooms.

These are food kits that allowed mothers to feed their children when their jobs were lost due to shelling or stigma.

A roof over their heads: more than just walls: For over 200 sex workers and their family members, this year was a year of returning a basic sense of security. Thanks to your help, we were able to secure housing or pay for utilities in Kyiv, Brovary, Poltava, and Mykolaiv (Київ, Бровари, Полтава та Миколаєв).

These are not just dry statistics — these are warm rooms where children can sleep peacefully, and their mothers can finally breathe and not think with horror about where they will be tomorrow. In times of war, home becomes the most valuable asset, and you helped these families preserve it.

These are also places for our initiative groups to meet, safe hubs where community leaders can meet and plan for the future, to discuss defending their rights, and coordinate assistance to others. You gave us not just a “roof,” but the foundation for the development of our activism.

Psychological and legal support: help is just a phone call away. Our Hotline has become a place where everyone is heard without judgment. Behind more than 700 psychological consultations are real stories of people who found themselves in despair and were able to find support. 713 information consultations helped our beneficiaries navigate legal and social issues when they did not know where to go and where to seek help.

Another 10 legal cases regarding the violation of the rights of women from our community - we were close to those who usually remain invisible to the system.

Restoring security: the path to self-dignity. In the regions, we held 144 self-help groups - these are truly islands of safety and solidarity, where each participant could take off their mask and share their pain. It was here that the most important thing happened - the restoration of human dignity.

Communicating on a peer-to-peer basis, the girls found the strength not just to survive, but to feel motivated to live again, to dream and support each other.

Inspiring stories

Community support is not just a statistic. This is the story of girls who escaped the war in an unfinished building and cooked food on a fire until our leader found an opportunity to help them with housing and HIV testing.

This is the story of a woman from occupied Kakhovka, who, having received help, herself initiated the collection of wet wipes for our soldiers at the front.

This is the voice of a girl who, in a self-help group, for the first time dared to talk about the violence she experienced and felt that she was not being judged, but supported.

Her own safe home

A special achievement this year was the creation of an autonomous office-shelter in Kyiv. Thanks to the support, we turned an empty room into a modern, safe space - Safe Space with its own heating and water supply system. This is not just a repair - it is the foundation of our independence and the guarantee that our sex workers will always have a place, protected from stigma and dangers.

Looking to the future

You helped us support a community where no one is left alone with their plight. In a world where our girls are forced to fight for their right to resources and respect every day, this help became a symbol for them that their lives are valuable. Thanks to you, hundreds of families received not just the means to survive, but most importantly - the faith that tomorrow will come.

Thank you for believing in the power of community self-organization! We continue to help people and continue working to create conditions where discrimination will gradually lose its position.

With respect, all the crew of the CO “Legalife-Ukraine”