Yana Matviychuk is a Ukrainian entrepreneur, volunteer, founder of the creative event company ARENS CS, and founder of the “Women’s Aid International” charity fund.
Loud explosions, the noise of Russian fighter jets over Kyiv, a frightened youngest daughter, and a lot of fear and misunderstanding. I am with my younger daughter in Kyiv, and my husband and my older daughter are in western Ukraine 700 km from home. That was the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. My daughter and I spent it in the underground parking lot.
Just yesterday, the successful owner of a large business was hiding underground from enemy missiles and sleeping dressed on a mat. Children are crying, and frightened parents are sitting in the parking lot and do not understand what to do and how to escape. I remember that leaving Kyiv by car was very dangerous – the Russians shot cars with civilians. There are dozens of kilometers of traffic jams on safe routes. Store shelves are empty, there is no fuel.
Yana Matviychuk at Maidan Square in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Yana Matviychuk about the beginning of a full-scale war
War is not a circumstance that can be controlled, but one that must be faced! Already on the first day of the war, I sat in a shelter with a laptop on my lap and started the fight! If I am already here, then it is necessary to help, and not give up – I thought to myself and started work.
I am the owner of the large creative agency ARENA CS. More than 70 people worked in the company at that time. Many were on business trips across the country. I understood very well what it means when a family is divided and a war starts outside. Fortunately, my husband and daughter were in a safe place. However, not everyone was so lucky.
In the first hours of the war, I informed the team that the company was suspending work. “Drop everything and go to your relatives!” – those were my words. And indeed, as it turned out, family is the most precious thing we have. The war only emphasized this.
Some employees were sleeping on the train when the Russian invasion began. Imagine, they were woken up by the calls of relatives. On that morning, every Ukrainian phone heard: “The war has begun!”. Not everyone believed it, but when Russian rockets exploded outside the window, realization came.
“Ukrainians have united into a single organism” – Yana Matviychuk
On February 24, 2022, Ukrainians became the only organism that ensured the functioning of the country and the army. Ukrainians abandoned all their affairs and started volunteering, joining the army, and helping war victims. I also joined the support of the army and forced migrants.
In the parking lot, where my youngest daughter and I stayed for two days, I put the child’s chair on the floor, took my laptop, and started working. Employees of my creative agency ARENA CS immediately joined the work. Our experience in the field of event organization came in very handy – we knew how to find something that was already missing in Ukraine and knew how to quickly build logistics. Our cells in the “Ukraine” organism began to work very effectively.
I was moved to tears by how people, despite stress and often despair, took up work. I was especially moved when Ukrainian businesses gave everything to support the military. For example, in the first days of the war, one entrepreneur gave a ton of sausage to the territorial defense fighters. Another entrepreneur, with whom we were preparing to sign a multimillion-dollar contract on February 23, handed me hundreds of shovels – I sent them to dig trenches and fortifications.
At the time of the beginning of the full-scale invasion, I was a member of the most powerful business communities in Ukraine. Acquaintance with businessmen made it possible to collect a significant amount of money to help the army – in the first months, I collected more than 100 million hryvnias within the framework of the Save Ukraine charity fund. All this money went to help the army.
When the Ukrainian Armed Forces repelled the Russian offensive on Kyiv, it became obvious to me that it was necessary to create initiatives that would be long-lasting. That is why I decided to concentrate on helping the forced migrants – hundreds of thousands of people fled the war and came to Kyiv.
Charity fund Women’s Aid International
In the spring of 2022, I founded the charity fund Women’s Aid International together with my colleagues. The primary task of the Foundation is to assist forced migrants, elderly people, and people with disabilities in Kyiv.
Yana Matviychuk delivers humanitarian aid to elderly people in Kyiv.
The first weeks of the foundation brought me to tears. Thousands of people lost their homes, relatives, and loved ones. The founders of the Foundation personally delivered aid to people’s homes. After some visits, we cried, our hearts were empty. A few months ago, we could not have imagined that Ukrainians would be forced to live in such conditions. It was especially painful to visit elderly people who were left without help and support. Some people were bedridden and had no relatives. Only social workers cared about them. To make life easier for these people, we provided them with food and hygiene kits.
Yana Matviychuk with partners from Poland.
Support of IDPs
In addition, our Foundation also helped forced migrants. We provided winter blankets, thermoses, electric sheets, functional underwear, food, and hygiene kits. Women’s Aid International also organized cultural events. For example, we organized a concert to which forced migrants and elderly people were invited. When Ukrainian songs played, adults cried, and children danced. It was a kind of psychological support for people who survived the horrors of occupation and war.
During the provision of humanitarian aid, it became obvious that there were not enough social workers for the number of people who needed support and assistance. For this purpose, the Foundation implemented the “Communication with Vulnerable Groups” project. These were trainings for social workers and volunteers. The participants studied the principles of communication with vulnerable groups of people. This project was implemented with the support of the EU.
Training for volunteers “Communication with Vulnerable Groups”.
Currently, our charitable foundation is implementing the project “School of Social Worker” with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine. This project is designed to give a new job to displaced people who have lost their jobs. We train social workers-companions who can provide high-quality social support services and spend time with a person: go to the market, drink tea together, and chat.
A total of 100 companion social workers are planned to be trained.
Yana Matviychuk helps the religious community
During the full-scale invasion in the city of Cherkasy (Ukraine), Priest Dmytro Yaroslavsky organized a place to accommodate forced migrants. Priest Dmytro asked me for help – I could not refuse. Religious communities and the church played a significant role in helping the IDPs and the military. Priests organized refugee accommodation points, and people brought food and clothes there and arranged common places. Churches in Ukraine became one of the first to help refugees because state institutions and schools could not turn into refugee accommodation points so quickly. Churches were among the first.
Thanks to Yana Matviychuk and other volunteers from priest Dmytro.
Army help
During the first months of the war, I helped soldiers and paramedics a lot. They still turn to me. During the “great” war, I provided support to the Zaporizhia Military Hospital, paramedics under the leadership of Ms. Oksana Korchynska, provided SUVs for the military and casevacs for evacuating wounded soldiers from the battlefield.
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- Yana Matviychuk supports paramedics.
Helping the army is now the most important thing that every business and every Ukrainian should do. The support of the army helped us to withstand the beginning of a full-scale invasion and is a guarantee that we will continue to endure.
Russia’s war against Ukraine is a blow that no one expected. We could not believe that in the 21st century, we would see military actions, the killing of civilians by the Russian military, torture, rape. Then we saw Bucha, Hostomel, and Borodyanka after the Russian occupation. Mariupol, Kherson, Kharkiv and Kharkiv region. Zaporizhzhia. The Russians crucified the country and flooded it with tears and blood. Despite this, we hold on and fight. This is our mission. Otherwise, we can be wiped out as a nation. And the destruction of Ukrainians is a threat to the whole of Europe. Therefore, we fight not only for ourselves but also for world democracy and European countries.
