The Saving Lives humanitarian project of Metinvest Group supported a Women For Ukraine charity event in New York City. The central figures of the event were women from Ukraine and the United States who demonstrate leadership, invincibility and contribute to the victory of Ukraine in the face of the full-scale war.
The Ukrainian Institute of America hosted approximately 120 guests, including women: business leaders, scientists, politicians, philanthropists, journalists, artists and representatives of other professions. They told true stories of their lives and the work they do to help Ukraine win the war against the russian federation. They also shared stories about other Ukrainian women who are the symbol of the invincibility and struggle of the entire Ukrainian people. Each of them is worthy of attention and should be heard.
PARTNERS
The event was organised by the Firefighters for Peace Foundation and Bleu et Jaune Consulting in cooperation with the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, the Saving Lives humanitarian project and the Consulate General of Ukraine in New York.
In particular, Nellie Ostrowski, ambassador for Saving Lives in the US, spoke about Alyona Farafon, an underground hoist machine operator at Northern Mining and Beneficiation Plant of Metinvest Group. After more than a year of the full-scale war, she has learned to combine a challenging work schedule with night shifts and her job duties with her motherly responsibilities. All the household work and difficult decisions fell to her, as her husband is currently serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and defending Ukraine in Donetsk area. Read more details of Alyona's story in a separate article.
- More than 30% of Metinvest Group's employees are women. They work in industrial worker jobs, occupy engineering and managerial positions. Some of them even hold key management positions. In this difficult time of the war, they are demonstrating incredible courage. The ability of our women to withstand pressure and overcome challenges can indeed be compared to the properties of steel as defined in the dictionary - "hard, elastic and strong", Nelly OSTROWSKI added.
- I once told Carrie-Lynn Wilson [note: famous conductor of many leading opera houses and orchestras, founder of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra] and her wonderful husband Peter Gelb that when I am in New York, I feel like I have been sheltered by their family, and not just me - I feel like the Metropolitan Opera has sheltered all of us. It was one of the very first institutions of the highest level to lend a hand to Ukrainians in the very first days of the war in 2022, and already in March it organised wonderful concerts for Ukraine, - Sergiy KYSLYTSYA, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, said.
The event was held on Vyshyvanka Day, so in honour of the Ukrainian tradition, the participants came in national clothes
Metinvest has been providing humanitarian aid to its employees and other Ukrainian citizens since the first days of the full-scale invasion. Almost half a million Ukrainians have already received support under the Saving Lives project, which the company implements in coordination with Rinat Akhmetov Foundation.
FACT
Today, Saving Lives is one of the greatest private humanitarian initiatives in Ukraine. Many areas of the project activities are led by women.
Metinvest's initiative provides people with food, hygiene products, medicines, and implements a prosthetics and psychological rehabilitation programme. In particular, thanks to the cooperation between Saving Lives and Masha Foundation, almost 194 people have received help from the psychologists of the Unbreakable Mom project. These are Metinvest employees, wives of the company's employees and their children who have been affected by the war.
