Matriarchy: an idea whose time has come

This is the third consecutive year that Ukraine has been carrying out a young female leadership support program called First Step to Success. Founded by the Ukrainian Women’s Foundation, the Ukrainian Center for Educational Reforms, Friends of Children Ukraine, Friends of Children USA, and Woman’s Health and Family Planning, the project is aimed at “enabling girls to feel that they can do something and to believe in themselves,” explained Marta Kolomayets, the head of the organizing committee.

The program targets girls and young women aged 15 to 23, who live in boarding schools or Ukraine’s economically depressed regions. This year a group of young female leaders were invited to draft socially significant projects for their respective regions. The organizing committee then selected around 25 of the best projects that were presented last weekend in Kyiv. To enable the participants to implement these projects, they will be awarded grants and other forms of assistance.

The number of submitted projects is increasing every year. The selection commission considered 6 projects in 2006, when the program was in its infancy. This figure jumped to 20 in 2007.

This year on Constitution Day, which is marked on June 28, the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Museum hosted a meeting between the winners of the First Step to Success program, its organizers, and a group of successful women from Ukraine and abroad. The winners had an opportunity to rub shoulders with Ukrainian MP Olha Herasymiuk, actress Natalia Sumska, the head of the Presidential Secretariat’s Information Policy Service Larysa Mudrak, singer Tetiana Piskariova, dancer and two-time world champion in ballroom dancing Olena Shoptenko, and other women. They talked about their achievements as well as failures on the way to success, and shared their experiences of how they overcame obstacles and learned from their mistakes. The winners said that their stories inspire self-confidence in them. This, after all, is one of the main benefits of the program: frank communication. As the meeting drew to a close, television host Danylo Yanevsky said, “I am delighted that my country has women like this.”

Now that these young female leaders have received much-needed support, it is expected that they will justify the program organizers’ expectations and get down to implementing their projects.

Olha HERASYMIUK , member of Ukraine’s parliament and TV hostess:

“These girls did not come here just to see some successful women. They brought some interesting winning projects, which are clearly not child’s play. For example, the girl who sat next to me lives in the vicinity of Zhuliany Airport, an area where a lot of traffic accidents occur. She designed a cloverleaf that can help prevent accidents and save many lives.

“All the other girls have a real project that adults have never carried out. The training sessions that they attend are also indispensable because they help young people avoid breaking down at difficult moments.

“Maybe if some of us had received this kind of help when we were starting out, we would be living quite differently today. The girls who came from small provincial towns received support that will surely produce results. Another important point is that it is very good that the program is focused on girls and young women. I am convinced that the matriarchal system never ended in our country. It is women who have always taken on the mission of saving the family and society throughout Ukraine’s history. Yet our women, who are carrying the entire burden on their tender shoulders, need an impulse to respect themselves, above all because Ukrainian women all too often allow themselves to be hurt and humiliated. And we must put an end to this. The program is supposed to instill self-respect in girls.”

Uliana SHTEIUK , program participant, village of Vovkiv, Lviv oblast:

“It is an open secret that everybody lives by the principle ‘not in my backyard.’ I may be a dreamer, but I really want everybody to live together in friendship. I’d like to do something to let people feel at least a trace of kindness and harmony. Therefore, the goal of my project is to organize a Cossack Entertainment fest in our village with funds earmarked for the creation of a women’s folk song ensemble whose members would not only sing but also teach us songs and draw us to ethnic things. There are so few Ukrainian things around!”

Maria SHEVCHUK , program participant, Rivne:

“It is a great pleasure to be able to communicate freely with female leaders who have already achieved something in their lives. When you look at them, you feel wings behind your shoulders and a desire to do something. The most valuable piece of advice that I heard today is that we should love ourselves because our own selves are the biggest obstacles on our way to success. My project calls for rebuilding the recreational park in Rivne, especially the children’s merry-go-round and bumper car floor. But the problem is that even the local authorities can’t say for sure who this park belongs to. So, even if you have won a project grant, you can’t do without the local authorities’ help.”

Valeria SHCHERBAKOVA , program participant, Melitopil, Zaporizhia oblast:

“My project targets rural youth development. Young people are now facing the problem of unemployment: they cannot even earn pocket money, let alone a living wage, and, as you know, rural families are far from well off. Joblessness in turn leads young people to become addicted to alcohol and drugs. So I have devised a scheme whereby young people can work as tour guides, produce video clips about sightseeing in the Azov Sea coastal area, publish booklets, or create Web sites, so that everybody can play a role. At the same time, they will be helping to develop tourism in Ukraine.”