Oksana Kovalenko: Life from Scratch and “Man’s Job”
“I decided that I must be useful to my country somewhere. I know this profession is usually seen as a man’s job, but many men are now at war. So I chose to study and make my own contribution to rebuilding Ukraine,”
says Oksana Kovalenko, a displaced person from Toretsk in Donetsk region
Oksana is 57 years old. She has had a disability since childhood and poor health, but throughout her life, she has relied only on her own strength.
In 2014, when Russian aggression reached Donetsk region, she made a conscious choice to stay with Ukraine. Together with her son, she left the occupied Donetsk and moved to Toretsk. But in 2022, the war forced her to flee once again.
For two months, Oksana and her son lived in the basement of their house while fighting was taking place around them. The ground did not stop shaking from explosions, and the air constantly smelled of smoke. They tried simply to survive. And they did.
“After leaving Toretsk, my son and I settled in Poltava region. Later, we moved to a small village near Dnipro. There, we managed to find an old abandoned house and bought it in instalments. All our money, including my pension and my son’s salary, goes to paying for this house,” Oksana says.
Despite the stress she experienced and her health problems, including several heart attacks and complications from diabetes, Oksana decided to do everything possible to change her situation.
She learned about the Skills4Recovery training in Dnipro from a neighbour and immediately applied. Working with her hands had never frightened her.
Oksana studied with determination, asked many questions and mastered new skills. The knowledge she gained has already helped her in everyday life. While repairing her house, she was able to fix an electrical problem herself.
Participants from Oksana’s group during practical training
Today, Oksana hopes to find a job to practise more and gain real experience in an enterprise. Oksana remains optimistic and says she is not afraid to work in a “man’s job” because women are capable of anything.
“More than anything, I dream of peace and of having my own home. That is why I am ready to work hard and with dedication. I want to be useful to my country and have the chance to live with dignity. I miss my large house in Toretsk. I miss my beautiful flower beds, which always attracted the admiration of the neighbours. But today my city is a pile of stones. And pain. I choose another path — life. I will do everything possible to plant new flowers in the garden near my house,” Oksana says.
Background
The training was conducted within the project “Skills for inclusion: workplace-based training for activating vulnerable groups”, implemented by the NGO “Ukrainian professional development” with financial support from the European Union, Germany, Poland, Estonia and Denmark within the Multi Donor Initiative Skills4Recovery, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Solidarity Fund PL (SFPL).
The project aims to expand opportunities for people with disabilities and those leaving military service, supporting their activation and reintegration into the labour market through reskilling programmes in economic sectors relevant to recovery and aligned with the qualifications of the target groups.